Top bookmakers press Chancellor to delay betting duty increase
Entain, Flutter, bet365, Bally's, evoke and Betfred have written to Chancellor John Healey urging a pause on the General Betting Duty rise due in April 2027.
Six of the largest operators in British betting have jointly written to Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey asking him to delay a scheduled increase in General Betting Duty, according to SBC News.
The letter, sent through the Betting and Gaming Council, is signed by the chief executives of Entain, Flutter UK & Ireland, bet365, Bally's Corporation, evoke and Betfred.
General Betting Duty is due to rise from 15% to 25% on 1 April 2027. The signatories want that increase held back until ministers have properly reviewed the effect of tax changes already in force, rather than scrapped outright.
Those earlier changes include Remote Gaming Duty, which climbed from 21% to 40% this April, nearly doubling the levy on online gambling products within a single year.
BGC chief executive Grainne Hurst said the letter amounted to a direct warning to the Treasury, telling Healey that "further tax rises will close more businesses, cost thousands more jobs and damage British sport, while potentially leaving the Treasury worse off."
Hurst has repeatedly pointed to the toll already taken on the high street, with SBC News reporting that more than 600 betting shops have shut and roughly 10,000 industry jobs have gone or are due to go since Rachel Reeves, then Chancellor, announced the tax increases in her November 2025 Autumn Budget.
She added that the closures represent genuine employment and community businesses, saying "these are real jobs, real livelihoods and businesses at the heart of communities across Britain," and that any additional increase would deepen the decline.
The lobbying push also targets a rumoured rise in Machine Games Duty, which operators fear could land alongside the GBD change. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already made clear he is unsympathetic to the sector's presence on the high street, making a reprieve on GBD politically unlikely.
Operators argue the timing is unfair regardless: the 40% Remote Gaming Duty rate has only been in place for around a year, a period that included the 2026 World Cup, described in the industry as the biggest sporting event bookmakers have ever handled. That makes it hard, they say, to judge the duty's effect in an ordinary trading year.
Hurst said the Chancellor should use the upcoming Budget to rule out a Machine Games Duty rise and to pause the General Betting Duty increase, adding: "You cannot tax businesses that have closed, and the Government risks destroying jobs and investment without raising a penny more for the Treasury."
A Betfred spokesperson echoed the warning to SBC News, saying betting shops across the country are under threat and that once they close "they are never coming back, taking thousands of jobs with them."