Is increased UK lotto price a stealth tax?

Doubling the price of a dabble on the UK national lottery to GBP 2 has been described as a ‘stealth tax’ by the Daily Mail newspaper, which quotes analysts  GBGC as predicting that the Treasury will reap an extra GBP 1 billion a year from proposed ticket price increases scheduled for next autumn.

The increase is the first in the lottery’s 20 year history, and analysts forecast that two years from now, Chancellor George Osborne will be taking almost double the State’s share of the takings before the onset of the economic downturn.

The relaunch of the lottery is designed to introduce regular GBP 5 million weekend jackpots, but a family accustomed to a GBP 5 weekly gamble will find themselves paying GBP10 for the same chance of winning, the newspaper points out.

“Duty paid on National Lottery tickets runs at 12 percent, and from the game’s beginnings in 1994 until 2007 the amount paid to the Treasury each year ran at between GBP 500 million and GBP 600 million,” the newspaper reports.

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