Betting and Gaming Duties Act 1981

6 Pool betting duty

(1) There shall be charged a duty of excise, to be known as pool betting duty—

(a) subject to subsection (2) below, on all bets made by way of pool betting, wherever made, and

(b) on all bets made at fixed odds with the Horserace Totalisator Board or a bookmaker in Great Britain by way of coupon betting,

not being bets made by way of sponsored pool betting or made as mentioned in section 1(1)(c) above.

(2) Bets made by way of pool betting are chargeable with pool betting duty only if—

(a) in the case of bets made by means of a totalisator, the totalisator is situated in Great Britain ;

(b) in the case of bets made otherwise than by means of a totalisator, the promoter of the betting is in Great Britain.

(3) For the purposes of this section and sections 7 and 8 below (except in their application to coupon betting)—

(a) subject to paragraph (b) and section 12(3) below, where payments are made for the chance of winning any money or money's worth on terms under which the persons making the payments have a power of selection which may (directly or indirectly) determine the winner, those payments shall be treated as bets notwithstanding that the power is not exercised ;

(b) " bet" does not include the taking of a ticket or chance—

(i) in any lottery which is declared by section 3, 4 or 25(6) of the [1976 c. 32.] Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976 not to be unlawful; or

(ii) in any society's lottery or local lottery within the meaning of section 5 or 6 of that Act, in which the relevant monetary limits are not exceeded.

(4) In subsection (3) above " relevant monetary limits " means the limits referred to in section 5(3)(d)(i) and subsections (2), (5), (6) and (8) of section 11 of the said Act of 1976 as those sections have effect on 1st July 1981 or such other limits as the Commissioners may by order provide.