Amendment by P. Bělobrádek (ST 910): statement
Dear members of the Budget Committee, Allow me to address you in connection with the planned discussion of the amendment by Mr. Pavel Bělobrádek, which is to increase taxes on lotteries to 55%. As a former national drug coordinator, I consider such a step to be completely against the meaning of the Harm Reduction approach (i.e. the approach of reducing harm and risks in the area of drug policy).
Dear members of the Budget Committee,
Allow me to address you in connection with the planned discussion of the amendment by Mr. Pavel Bělobrádek, which is to increase taxes on lotteries to 55%. As a former national drug coordinator, I consider such a step to be completely against the meaning of the Harm Reduction approach (i.e. the approach of reducing harm and risks in the area of drug policy).
On the scale of riskiness of individual types of gambling, lotteries are assessed as the least risky; therefore, last year, in connection with the discussion of the so-called tax package, we proposed that regulation, including tax regulation, be differentiated. In EU countries, 70% of the market is made up of the least risky lotteries, but in the Czech Republic it is exactly the opposite. Mr. Bělobrádek's claim that the average taxation of lotteries in the EU is 64% needs to be corrected - the reality is that either these are state lotteries, where 100% of the profit goes to the state, or the tax is usually lower than 20%. A large percentage of lotteries are operated by non-profit organizations and the profits go to the purposes of their activities - here we need to talk more about tax allocations, which would, for example, go to solving the prevention and treatment of addiction, similar to the case in Portugal. The current situation in the Czech Republic is such that the taxation of odds bets and tombolas is 23%, while slot machines, together with lotteries (incomprehensibly) from the new year, are at a taxation level of 35%. Mr. Bělobrádek's proposal therefore consists of increasing the taxation of the least risky games to 55%, without any rational analysis and also without reference to the logic of the gambling law itself, the purpose of which was to regulate the problem of pathological gambling; pathological gambling in the Czech Republic is still twice as bad as problematic drug use.
The Gambling Act should first of all be properly evaluated; legislative
changes are conceivable, for example, in the area of distinguishing online risky betting and especially taking into account the Harm Reduction approach and tax allocations.
For your information, I am attaching a statement that my colleagues and I prepared last year in response to the discussion of the so-called tax package and which contains some fundamental arguments that may be useful for your decision-making when discussing the amendment proposed by Mr. Bělobrádek in the Budget Committee.
Best regards
Jindřich Vobořil
Institute for Rational Addiction Policies
