90 Labour MPs urge Chancellor to raise Machine Games Duty
A letter organised by backbench MP Alex Ballinger calls on John Healey to lift duty on Category B gaming machines to 40% in this month's Budget, intensifying a standoff with the UK gambling industry.
Ninety Labour MPs have signed a letter pressing Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey to raise Machine Games Duty on Category B machines to 40% in this month's Budget, SBC News reports.
The letter was organised by Alex Ballinger, the Labour MP who has become one of the gambling industry's most vocal critics in the House of Commons since his election in 2024.
Category B machines are found in betting shops, bingo halls and adult gaming centres. Ballinger's letter singles out adult gaming centres, claiming that "47% are located in the most deprived fifth of the country, while the most deprived local authorities have more than six times as many per head as the least deprived".
SBC News notes that while some studies have found adult gaming centres concentrated in poorer areas, Ballinger has been corrected by the Gambling Commission three times since the start of 2025 over his use of official statistics.
He cited research from the Social Market Foundation suggesting the tax rise could raise between £275m and £458m a year, a figure SBC News cautions would likely fall as betting shops close in response to higher duty.
Ballinger's letter focuses on B3 machines, which allow stakes of up to £2 and prizes of up to £500 at rapid play speeds. He wrote that government reviews had found evidence from the Gambling Commission that players of high-stake, high-prize machines are among those most likely to contact gambling help services.
He has asked that pub fruit machines be excluded from any increase, and that bingo retain its duty-free status, arguing the game itself would remain untouched even if the machines used alongside it were taxed more heavily.
The letter lands amid a sustained industry counter-campaign. Betfred's Fred Done, Jennings Bet's Greg Knight and The Rank Group's Richard Harris have all warned that a duty rise would force shop closures and job losses, with Done predicting it would effectively end retail betting in the UK by 2030.
More than 1,000 members of the greyhound industry have signed a separate letter opposing the rise, while the Betting and Gaming Council has launched its Back Our Betting Shops campaign and The Sun has run its own Save Our Bets push.
Earlier this week, Entain, Flutter UK & Ireland, bet365, Bally's Corporation, evoke and Betfred co-signed a Betting and Gaming Council letter urging the Chancellor to rule out a Machine Games Duty increase and pause the planned rise in General Betting Duty.
Ballinger, who was among the Labour MPs prominent in efforts to remove Sir Keir Starmer as party leader, framed his case in explicitly anti-business terms. "We urge you to act for communities nationwide by introducing an increased Machine Games Duty rate for Category B machines," he wrote, adding that the reform would "back high streets creating opportunity and retaining wealth" while leaving pubs and bingo untouched.
He said the move would deliver on the Prime Minister's pledge to return power to communities and the party's manifesto commitment to reduce gambling harm, describing it as "fair, popular and fiscally responsible".
Not every Labour gambling critic signed. Carolyn Harris, the Neath and Swansea East MP who has chaired the Gambling-Related Harms All-Party Parliamentary Group, did not add her name, nor did Caerphilly MP Chris Evans, who sits on the same group. Other APPG members, including Dawn Butler, Abtisam Mohamed and Maureen Burke, did sign.