MILLIONS of punters would be whacked by Gordon Brown’s proposed £3 billion gambling tax raid, the Tories warned today.

Shadow Gambling Minister Louie French said “short-sighted” plans by the ex-PM to hike taxes on everything from racing to online bingo would hammer people who like a bet.

He blasted: “Labour’s short sighted tax raid would only fuel the black market, hurting jobs, British sports and punters.”

It came as the boss of Paddy Power-owner Flutter, Peter Jackson, said a tax hike could actually lead to lower tax revenue for the Treasury.

And his comments were echoed by independent tax expert Dan Neidle, who said the tax raid suggested by the former PM and the IPPR was likely to backfire and end up costing customers.

Mr Neidle said: “The IPPR has proposed large increases in gambling taxes.

“But £3 billion may be optimistic.

“And it will mostly be gamblers paying the tax.”

He added: “We need to be careful about trying to raise additional revenue from ‘sin’ taxes.

“The revenue may be less than we expect, and what revenue we do receive may come from customers.

“Any argument for an increase … needs to acknowledge who is actually paying the price.”

The Dutch gambling regulator earlier this week moaned that higher gambling taxes had actually ended up costing money because of lower tax revenue.

Peter Jackson, presenting Flutter’s half-year results, said the Chancellor had to bear the experience of the Dutch in mind.

He said: “Raising taxes is not straightforward and we have operational experience around the world whereby if you continue to push tax rates up, you actually see a reduction in the tax take.

“This is the case in the Netherlands, for example, where the government is facing a €200m shortfall.”

He added: “The other very obvious risk is that consumers will move to the black market, and it is a real threat.

“From our perspective, it’s important that we keep customers in the regulated market, where there is significant investment in safer gambling and player protection.”

Mr Brown called for a £3 billion tax raid on gambling to pay for measures to tackle child poverty, despite the Government spending £313 billion on welfare a year.

He based his calls on a paper by the centre left wonk tank the IPPR, which wants betting duty to go from 15 per cent to 25 per cent on sports and 21 per cent to 50 per cent on online bingo, poker and slots.