Explainer
Tax on betting winnings, and the trap in both directions
A licensed operator pays winnings in full today. Anybody writing that winnings here have always been untaxed is wrong about every year a reader can remember.
A ten per cent withholding on gross winnings was introduced in 2023. Not on profit, on the gross, which meant a punter turning over money at a small loss could still be taxed on the winning slips inside it.
It was repealed on 2 April 2025. Since that date a licensed operator pays out in full and nothing is deducted from a winning slip on tax grounds.
Both halves of that history have to travel together. Saying winnings are taxed here is now wrong. Saying they have always been tax free is also wrong, and it is the more likely mistake, because it is the true sentence in several other markets and it copies across easily.
A separate levy on the operator’s gross gaming revenue remains. That is a charge on the business rather than on the punter and it does not reduce what a winning slip pays.
One thing to watch on the operator’s own pages: at least one book in this market still states a withholding rate in its own published terms that no longer applies. Operator copy goes stale, and stale copy about tax is worth checking against the law rather than the other way round.
Questions this page gets asked
Is anything deducted from a winning bet today?
Not on tax grounds at a licensed operator. One operator in this market charges a percentage fee on withdrawals, which is a fee rather than a tax and is set out on the deposits pages.
What about winnings from before April 2025?
The withholding applied while it was in force, and liabilities incurred before a repeal survive it. This is not tax advice and anybody with a real question about a past year should take it to somebody qualified to answer it.