NSW to decide size of point-of-consumption gambling tax

Illustration: Rod Clement

Three weeks before the NSW budget, a Melbourne Cup field of gambling lobbyists are trying to influence Dominic Perrottet. What is the 35-year-old NSW Treasurer going to do?

Exciting the national gambling industry is Perrottet’s imminent decision on the size of a point-of-consumption tax on gambling in the nation’s most populous state.

It was also a subject of interest among Perrottet’s state and territory peers last Friday when they gathered in Melbourne for their second official “Board of Treasurers” meeting.

Perrottet’s decision — which follows the example first set by Jay Weatherill in South Australia — will end a tax dodge facilitated by the most pliant pocket of the federation: the Northern Territory.

So where’s he going to land?

Margin Call understands when asked on Friday, Perrottet told Tim Pallas, Jackie Trad and the other state and territory treasurers that NSW’s rate could be as low as 8 per cent or as high as 15 per cent. In other words, no decision has been made.

Online-only bookmakers — including Barni Evans’ Sportsbet, Matt Tripp’s CrownBet and Jason Scott’s Ladbrokes — want a lower rate than the 15 per cent Weatherill pioneered in South Australia, after adopting an idea from the South Australian Council of Social Service that itself pinched from Britain.

Giving the Northern Territory-licensed digital upstarts hope was the 8 per cent levy that Victorian Labor Premier Dan Andrews and his Treasurer Pallas revealed a fortnight ago.

At almost half the SA level, that was a coup for online players, although their lobbyist Stephen Conroy (the former Victorian Labor powerbroker) did his best to publicly hide the glee of his members.

Championing a higher tax is the online posse’s bricks-and-mortar rival, David Atten­borough’s Tabcorp, a $9 billion gambling giant that is already taxed a rate higher than anything proposed for its online ­rivals.

Tabcorp wants NSW to arrive at a policy matching, or approaching, the 15 per cent ­consumption tax in SA.

Another key player in all this is Racing NSW boss Peter V’landys, who while no great champion of the online bookies, won’t want to be disadvantaged by any change.

That may require some redistribution of funds by the state government to compensate for lost income.

Western Australia has announced it would follow with a 15 per cent tax.

But to the excitement of the online players, West Australian Racing Minister Paul Papalia has recently suggested Victoria’s lower rate could nudge that down.

In the next two weeks, Andrew Barr’s ACT government and Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Queensland government will also bring down budgets that are likely to reveal their point-of-consumption gaming tax.

Both have mooted the 15 per cent level, which would be cheered by Tabcorp and make it difficult for Perrottet to match Victoria’s lowly 8 per cent. Any deviation will be pounced on by the online bookies.

A compromise figure of 10 per cent for NSW has been mooted, although the logic of the number doesn’t seem to extend beyond it falling between 8 and 15. Why not, 9, or 11, or 12 or 13?

The lobbying could continue after Perrottet delivers his budget on June 19.

Margin Call understands no decision has been made. Perrottet might do like his Labor mate Pallas and save his gambling tax announcement for a few weeks after he unveils another stonking surplus.

Legal lottery

Staying with gambling and lobbying, Margin Call understands Luke Brill and his hired Lottoland defenders from the Coalition-aligned Barton Deakin and Labor-aligned Hawker Britton are expected to descend on Canberra on Wednesday.

Contrary to reports of its execution, Team Brill insists the Australian outpost of the Gibraltar-headquartered, Northern Territory-licensed, “synthetic lottery” business Lottoland is not dead yet.

CEO Brill and his lobbyists are trying to rally some senate crossbenchers to champion a review of the Turnbull government-introduced legislation that would ban the barely taxed Lottoland.

That legislation passed the House of Representatives with unanimous support.

Communications minister Mitch Fifield (aka “The Executioner”) remains confident about its passage through the senate in coming weeks.

In the event of its likely passage, Team Brill have one more tactic to stay the execution: a High Court challenge.

Margin Call can reveal Lottoland has engaged and briefed barrister Noel Huntley SC.

He’s the president of the Australian Bar Association and Nine’s advocate in its successful regional live-streaming case against billionaire Bruce Gordon’s Win.

Could Huntley notch up another victory for the digital revolutionaries?

We wouldn’t bet on it.

Sage advice

Last week, the Stensholt Index crowned Thorney billionaire Alex Waislitz the Warren Buffett of Australia.

And with the title, comes Buffett problems.

For decades, the 87-year-old Sage of Omaha has struggled to accommodate the thousands who want to listen to his folksy financial advice.

And now the 60-year Sage of Toorak has a similar problem.

Since Waislitz’s “Buffett”-ing, a Thorney investor day in Sydney this Thursday had to be relocated to a bigger venue after oversubscription.

The event — now in a spacious room at the ASX’s headquarters on Bridge Street — will allow Waislitz’s Thorney shareholders to hear presentations by companies the billionaire’s listed vehicles invest in, such as Credible Labs, Money3 Corporation, Zip Co, Oventus Medical and Zenith Energy. But to be honest, the enthusiastic attendees will be more interested in Waislitz’s advice on how they could turn $1.15 million into $1.39bn.

And they’ll have an even more pressing question for the recent birthday boy: who is his party planner?