Higher gambling taxes won't solve child poverty

As the man who first gave Britain a £150 billion deficit, I don’t think Gordon Brown is the best person to advise the current government on its fiscal policy. But even so the gaping hole in his call for higher gambling duties does raise the eyebrows.

Brown seems to think that higher gambling taxes are capable of lifting half a million children out of poverty. Writing in the Guardian , he claims that raising online gaming taxes from 25 per cent to 50 per cent will raise an extra £1.6 billion, jacking up general betting duty from 15 per cent to 25 per cent will raise an extra £450 million and increasing the duty on physical slot machines from 25 per cent to 50 per cent will raise an extra £880 million. Together, it is all apparently enough to put food on the table for 500,000 kids who are