Vol. 497 No. 4
113 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Finance his views of whether the only effective course of action to protect the betting industry is the reduction of betting duty to 5 per cent in view of the difficulty in enforcing legislation governing offshore betting and the loss from the industry in this regard. [25275/98]
The Deputy will appreciate that it would not be appropriate for me to comment on any taxation proposals in the run up to the forthcoming budget. However, I am glad to point out that there has been no falling off this year in Exchequer receipts from betting. The receipts to end of October 1998 are £44.5 million, which is an increase of 16.2 per cent over the same period last year.
