Now that seems a ludicrously low amount for many years. Now the BHB are asking for 232m for the future. Of that 232m that VAT is included, which it wasn't before. The punters have been subsidising this for years. You talk to bookmakers and they say we pay the levy.
Punters pay the levy out of the nine per cent betting tax over the years.
The racing industry has now got determined not to sell the industry short and are determined to get what they can out of bookmakers. And I don't mind them doing that as long as punters don't pay the difference. There has got to be a happy medium, enough charge to give something to racing without a new tax imposed on the punters. Some people say bookmakers are bluffing and they will pay it in the end. There's one very interesting fact in all of this.