Done family paid £30m dividend before Betfred job-cut warning

The family behind Betfred took a £30m dividend from the gambling group shortly before its founder warned the government that higher taxes on betting-shop machines could force widespread closures and job losses, according to Guardian gambling.

Chancellor John Healey is reportedly weighing plans to double machine games duty in the forthcoming budget, a move the Social Market Foundation thinktank has said could raise as much as £460m for the Treasury.

Fred Done and other industry figures argue the change would devastate bookmakers and casinos. On Wednesday, industry signatories including Done wrote to Healey warning the proposal could lead to roughly 1,470 shop closures across the betting sector, 34 casino closures, and some 15,900 job losses, Sky News first reported.

The letter landed the same day Betfred's parent company filed accounts at Companies House. Those accounts show the Warrington-based operator took £996m from British customers in the year to the end of March 2026, generating pre-tax profit of £64m.

That performance supported an interim dividend of £30m to shareholders, largely trusts benefiting the Done family, bringing total payouts since 2022 to more than £105m. The money is understood to have gone into other Done family ventures, including their expanding property interests.

Fred Done, who opened his first betting shop in 1967 and became one of Britain's wealthiest men, told the Financial Times last month, "They keep saying those with the broadest shoulders should be paying more tax." He questioned why his family should face a heavier burden, pointing out they contributed £400m in tax last year.

The Dones, worth roughly £3bn, are listed as Britain's biggest taxpayers by the Sunday Times Tax List. Betfred's accounts show £54m of that £400m came from machine games duty. A rise in the rate from 20% to 40% would, in theory, double that contribution.

Done maintains that such an increase would push many shops into loss, forcing closures that would ultimately shrink the Treasury's overall take rather than grow it. Casino operators have issued similar warnings.

This is not the first time Betfred has raised the prospect of mass closures in response to policy change. Since 2019 the company has threatened to shut nearly 1,000 shops over tax rises or tighter rules, including the £2 stake cap imposed on fixed-odds betting terminals. Its estate has fallen from about 1,620 shops to 1,293 over that period, a drop of close to 330, as the sector shifts further online.

Campaigners backing a higher machine games duty have concentrated less on bookmakers and more on adult gaming centres, the 24-hour slot machine venues that have expanded under permissive planning and licensing rules, often in deprived areas. Prime minister Andy Burnham has criticised the sector and in August announced measures to make it easier for councils to block new venues.

Some in the gambling industry warn that adult gaming centres, with lower overheads than bookmakers or casinos, are best placed to withstand a duty increase and could even gain ground as rivals retreat. Merkur, the UK's second-largest adult gaming centre operator, has already bid for some of the 132 Betfred shops put up for sale earlier this year.