The Social Market Foundation (SMF) has admitted to making an error in its report calling for online casino tax to jump from 21% to 50% in the UK.
The report, entitled The Duty to Differentiate: Gambling tax reform, was submitted by SMF senior fellow James Noyes on 29 July.
As per the Office for Statistics Regulation’s (OSR) casework log, as of 5 August, the body opened a review into the SMF’s report following a complaint. The source of the complaint was not made public by the OSR.
The OSR also did not divulge what its investigation specifically related to. Posting on X on 27 August, Noyes issued a correction to the SMF report based on wording used in the policy proposal.
He wrote: “It has been brought to my attention by a colleague that in my recent report on tax reform, when making reference to a study by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities on the fiscal costs of gambling harm, I used the words ‘due to’ rather than ‘associated with’.
“While this may seem a minor semantic detail to many people, it risks suggesting a causal relationship which is not contained in the OHID report. The integrity of research is important to me.
“There is no point in me criticising the lobbying and twisting of facts that is unfortunately often done by others, if I don’t accept reasonable observations when it comes to my own work.
“So, I am very happy to make a correction for the public record: my reference to fiscal costs in the fourth paragraph of page 14 of my recent tax report should have said ‘associated with’ rather than ‘due to’.”
At the time of writing, the SMF report available for download on the think tank’s website still includes the phrase “due to” on page 14.
The OHID’s own report, the Gambling-Related Harms Evidence Review, which was last updated in January 2023, stated that the direct financial cost “associated with” harmful gambling to the government was £412.9m.
However, the SMF’s report said that the costs to the government were “due to” harmful gambling rather than being “associated with” gambling-related harms. This could be interpreted as a causal link, which the OHID report does not insinuate.
When first contacted by EGR on 21 August, the SMF was unaware of the OSR’s investigation.
The OSR has since confirmed to EGR that it has now closed its case into the SMF report.
EGR understands that the case was handled privately as it was not considered to meet the threshold for a public intervention by OSR.
“This decision was primarily based on the OHID research and the SMF report being outside of our formal remit,” an OSR spokesperson said.
When contacted by EGR, Noyes declined to comment further beyond his post on X.
The post Social Market Foundation admits error in tax hike report amid OSR investigation first appeared on EGR Intel.
Think tank’s proposal, which calls for a 50% online casino tax in the UK, included wording that risked insinuating a causal link between gambling and costs of harm
The post Social Market Foundation admits error in tax hike report amid OSR investigation first appeared on EGR Intel.