Film producer and Labour peer Lord Puttnam has said the UK should use the boom in internet gambling in the UK to support the arts.
Writing in the Yorkshire Post, Puttnam said: “We will need to find new ways to help support the arts.
“As many of you will be aware, there is enormous growth in the gambling industry, particularly online gambling, perhaps even, to some extent, displacing money spent on our National Lottery.
“I would like to think that the proceeds of a point-of-consumption tax on online gambling could, for example, be used to supplement the nation’s investment in arts, sport and culture,” said the BAFTA-winning producer.
“Many of the companies that operate in the online gambling space are based offshore, therefore making very little contribution to the overall long-term prosperity of the country.
Puttnam added: “By finding an effective way to use the proceeds of an enhanced tax on gambling to support arts and sport, we would be harnessing what may well prove to be a worrying rise in gambling activity, and allow it to become something which is of economic, social and cultural value to the nation a whole.”
