Bookmakers face new British horse racing charge

By Neil Maidment LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will impose a new charge on bookmakers to broaden the funding for horse racing to include more online gambling firms, finance minister George Osborne said on Wednesday. Bookmakers support the sport through a levy on income on bets placed on races that has been imposed since the 1960s. It was worth around 82 million pounds ($120 million) in 2014 but many online betting companies do not have to contribute. The new charge to be called the "racing right" will "apply to all bookmakers wherever located, who take bets from British customers on British racing," Britain's Treasury said in its budget document. The move is the latest in a line of regulatory moves to hit the betting industry. Increased duty on fixed odds betting terminals in bookmakers' high street shops and a new tax on online gambling have recently been introduced. "Today's announcement is a welcome and tremendous boost for the tens of thousands of people across the country that derive their livelihoods from our sport," the British Horseracing Authority said, adding it would look to have the right introduced as soon as possible. The news was greeted less enthusiastically by the Association of British Bookmakers, which called the proposal unworkable and said it would be mired in legal and other issues for years. "Our members already pay 10.75 percent of their gross profits from their UK horseracing business to racing," the ABB said. "Together with media rights and sponsorship, the transfer from our members to racing is some 248 million pounds, an incredible amount that has to be enough," it added. Horse racing, once a pillar of the gambling industry, has been surpassed in importance in recent years by betting on soccer and the increasing popularity of online gaming.