Make sure that sport finances sport a little more. This is the meaning of an amendment adopted by the finance committee of the National Assembly as part of the examination of the finance bill for 2024. The deputies decided to raise the “ceilings” of two taxes levied on sports betting revenues and allocated to the National Sports Agency (ANS), the structure responsible for implementing public sports policies.
They thus increased the levy to be made on the online sports betting of Française des jeux to 181.7 million euros, instead of the 34.6 million euros provided for in the initial text of the draft budget. In the same way, they increased to 246 million euros, instead of the 71.8 million euros provided for in the initial text, the sum taken from the games operated by the Française des jeux excluding sports betting.
The request to request sports betting revenues more strongly had already been expressed by parliamentarians (and local elected officials) in the fall of 2022 during the examination of the finance bill for 2023. The government had refused to uncapped these extrabudgetary resources.
The Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games seemed to open the door to a possible evolution: “ We are thinking about how to benefit from a part [du] dynamism » online sports betting, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra declared to senators. In 2022 the gross proceeds from these bets increased by 2.5%, to 1.38 billion euros (after an increase of 44% in 2021), according to the National Gaming Authority.
The amendment adopted by the deputies, however, has no chance of being adopted in the end. Already, the entire revenue side of the draft budget has been rejected by the Finance Committee. And, moreover, the government should have its text adopted without a vote, using article 49.3. The project will therefore remain in its initial version which marks a status quo compared to 2023.
If the levy made by the State on online sports betting should represent 181.7 million, the ANS will collect 34.6 million of this sum, as in 2023. As for taxes on games, which should bring in a little more than 246 million euros to the State, 71.8 million will be earmarked for the ANS, as in 2023. The taxes levied on bets and games are mainly used to finance the general budget of the State, and therefore other positions than sport.