Betting Duties Act 1963
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1963 c. 3 |
| Year | 1963 |
Betting Duties Act 1963
1963 CHAPTER 3
An Act to consolidate certain enactments relating to the pool betting and bookmakers' licence duties.
[28th February 1963]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Pool betting duty
1 Pool betting duty.
(1) There shall be charged on all bets made by way of pool betting other than sponsored pool betting, being bets, wherever made, either—
(a ) made by means of a totalisator situated in Great Britain; or
(b ) in the case of which, being bets made otherwise than by means of a totalisator, the promoter of the betting is in Great Britain,
a duty of excise, to be known as the pool betting duty.
(2) Subject to any order for the time being in force under section 9 of the Finance Act 1961, the pool betting duty shall be an amount equal to the following percentage of the amount of the stake money paid, that is to say—
(i) in the case of bets on dog races made by means of a totalisator on a licensed track, ten per cent.;
(ii) in any other case, thirty-three per cent.
(3) The pool betting duty shall be paid, in the case of bets made by means of a totalisator, by the operator, that is to say, the person who, as principal, operates the totalisator, and, in the case of other bets, by the promoter.
(4) The supplemental provisions set out in Schedule 1 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the pool betting duty.
(5) For the purposes of the pool betting duty, any payment which entitles a person to make a bet by way of pool betting shall, if he makes the bet, be treated as stake money on the bet, and this subsection shall apply to any payment entitling a person to take part in a transaction which is, on his part, only not a bet made by way of pool betting by reason of his not in fact making any stake as if the transaction were such a bet, and the transaction shall accordingly be treated as a bet for the purposes of the pool betting duty.
2 Prohibition of certain activities for protection of pool betting duty.
(1) With a view to protecting the revenue derived from the pool betting duty, any person who—
(a ) conducts in Great Britain any business or agency for the negotiation, receipt or transmission of bets to which this section applies; or
(b ) knowingly issues, circulates or distributes in Great Britain, or has in his possession for that purpose, any advertisement or other document inviting or otherwise relating to the making of such bets,
shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) This section applies to all bets made by way of pool betting except—
(a ) bets in the case of which, being bets made otherwise than by means of a totalisator—
(i) the promoter of the betting is in Great Britain; or
(ii) the promoter of the betting is in Northern Ireland and the bets are such as to be chargeable with a duty corresponding to the pool betting duty under an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland; or
(iii) the promoter of the betting is in the Isle of Man and the bets are such as to be chargeable with a duty imposed by or under an Act of Tynwald and corresponding (both as to rate of duty and otherwise) with the pool betting duty;
(b ) bets made by means of a totalisator situated in Great Britain.
(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable—
(a ) on summary conviction, to a penalty not exceeding one hundred pounds or, in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to a penalty not exceeding two hundred pounds or to both; or
(b ) on conviction on indictment, to a penalty not exceeding five hundred pounds or, in the case of a second or subsequent conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to a penalty not exceeding seven hundred and fifty pounds or to both;
and for the purposes of this subsection a conviction for an offence under section 5 of the Finance Act 1952 shall be deemed to have been a conviction for an offence under this section.
(4) A person who makes or tries to make a bet by way of pool betting, or who gets or tries to get any advertisement or other document given or sent to him, shall not be guilty of an offence by reason of his thereby procuring or inciting some other person to commit, or aiding or abetting the commission of, an offence under this section.
3 Definition of pool betting.
(1) For the purposes of this Act, any bet shall be deemed to be made by way of pool betting unless it is a bet at fixed odds, and, in particular, bets shall be held to be made by way of pool betting wherever a number of persons make bets—
(a ) on terms that the winnings of such of those persons as are winners shall be, or be a share of, or be determined by reference to, the stake money paid or agreed to be paid by those persons, whether the bets are made by means of a totalisator, or by filling up and returning coupons or other printed or written forms, or otherwise howsoever; or
(b ) on terms that the winnings of such of those persons as are winners shall be, or shall include, an amount (not determined by reference to the stake money paid or agreed to be paid by those persons) which is divisible in any proportions among such of those persons as are winners; or
(c ) on the basis that the winners or their winnings shall, to any extent, be at the discretion of the promoter or some other person.
(2) A bet is a bet at fixed odds within the meaning of this section only if each of the persons making it knows or can know, at the time he makes it, the amount he will win, except in so far as that amount is to depend on the result of the event or events betted on, or on any such event taking place or producing a result, or on the numbers taking part in any such event, or on the starting prices or totalisator odds for any such event, or on there being totalisator odds on any such event, or on the time when his bet is received by any person with or through whom it is made.
In this subsection the expression ‘starting prices’ in relation to any event means the odds ruling at the scene of the event immediately before the start, and the expression ‘totalisator odds’—
(a ) in relation to a recognised horse race means the odds paid on bets on that race made by way of sponsored pool betting;
(b ) in relation to any other event means the odds paid on bets made by means of a totalisator at the scene of the event.
(3) A bet made with or through a person carrying on a business of receiving or negotiating bets, being a bet made in the course of that business, shall be deemed not to be a bet at fixed odds within the meaning of this section if the winnings of the person by whom it is so made consist or may consist in whole or in part of something other than money.
(4) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, where payments are made for the chance of winning any money or money's worth on terms under which the payors have a power of section which may (directly or indirectly) determine the winner, then, for the purposes of this Act, those payments shall be treated as bets notwithstanding that the power is not exercised.
(5) Where a person carries on a business of receiving or negotiating bets and there is or has been issued in connection with that business any advertisement or other publication calculated to encourage in persons making bets of any description with or through him a belief that the bets are made on the basis mentioned in subsection (1) (c ) of this section, then any bets of that description subsequently made with or through him in the course of that business shall be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be made on that basis.
(6) In this Act the expression ‘bet’ does not include the taking of a ticket or chance—
(a ) in any lottery which is declared by section 43, 44 or 46 of the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act 1963 not to be unlawful; or
(b ) in any lottery to which section 45 of that Act applies and in the case of which all the conditions specified in subsection (3) (b ), (c ) and (g ) of that section are observed;
and does not include any bet or stake at any gaming conducted in such circumstances that no offence under Part II of that Act is committed.
Bookmakers' licence duty
4 Bookmakers' licence duty.
(1) No person shall carry on bookmaking in any enclosure on a licensed track at a dog race-meeting at which a totalisator is operated unless he has taken out an excise licence authorising him to carry on bookmaking in that enclosure at that meeting.
(2) There shall be charged on any such licence as aforesaid a duty of excise, to be known as the bookmakers' licence duty, which, subject to any order for the time being in force under section 9 of the Finance Act 1961, shall be of an amount determined in accordance with the following Table.
Table
For a track where the public is admitted to |
A licence authorising the bookmaker to carry on bookmaking in |
Amount of duty on the licence |
|
| 1. | 2. | 3. | 4. |
| A single enclosure | The enclosure | 12 | |
Two enclosures and no more |
The cheaper enclosure | 6 | Where there are to be more races than eight at the meeting an additional amount of one-eighth of the amount in the third column for each race in excess of eight. |
| The dearer enclosure | 24 | ||
More than two enclosures |
The cheapest enclosure | 6 | |
The cheapest but one enclosure |
18 | ||
| Any other enclosure | 48 | ||
(3) If any person carries on bookmaking in contravention of subsection (1) of this section, he shall be liable to a penalty of two hundred pounds; and in any proceedings under this...
To continue reading
Request your trial