 Previously betting was either on course, via certain credit betting offices, or illegally conducted often in or around public houses, with 'bookies runners' ferrying the bets from bookmaker to client.Betting is taxed under the authority of various acts of Parliament.A gross profit tax is levied on all UK based bookmakers which is payable to the exchequer, and a separate sum is agreed and collected by the Horserace Betting Levy Board, a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, who use the funds for race prize money and the improvement of horse racing.