New Law for WA Racing Industry

The WA government has just passed a new law to help the WA racing industry recover lost revenue. The WA TAB currently pays fees, totalling $18 million a year, to other State racing industries when betting on their racing products.

This new legislations now allows the WA racing industry to charge its own fees to interstate and international operators when they wager on WA races. The levy will be based either on 1.5% of the turnover or 20% of gross revenue, whichever is greater, or alternatively, 0.2% of turnover. This detail is yet to be worked out.

As a result, WA will be able to recover $15 million of lost revenue.

The levy will be applied retrospectively from 1 September 2008 meaning that all operators must pay the levy dating back more than 12 months ago.

Regulations to establish the process are still currently being drafted, however, it is expected that the industry will start to benefit from the new fees early next year.

Meanwhile, Betfair and Sportsbet continue their legal battles against the NSW government. The companies are alleging that the race fields levy in NSW (which collects 1.5% of any wager) only benefits the TABs operated by Tabcorp and Tatts Group.