Chancellor said to weigh 25% cap on Machine Games Duty

The Times has reported, citing sources it has not named, that the Autumn Budget due on 28 October will raise Machine Games Duty from its current 20% to 25%, a five-point increase rather than the far steeper rise gambling reform campaigners had been pushing for.

SBC News notes that, if that figure holds, it would mark a measure of relief for land-based betting and entertainment firms that have spent months bracing for much worse.

The anxiety traces back to a June report from the Social Market Foundation, which argued MGD should be doubled to 40%. That position was later taken up by prominent figures campaigning for gambling reform, and then by 90 Labour MPs who co-signed a letter drafted by backbencher Alex Ballinger repeating the call for a 40% rate.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has also pushed publicly for a higher MGD rate, framing it as a way to raise money for cost-of-living support. The sector has learned to take his interventions seriously: last year he pressed for Remote Gaming Duty to reach 50% and General Betting Duty to hit 25%, and the 2025 Budget did raise those duties to 40% and 25% respectively. Brown also wanted MGD lifted to 50% at that point, though it escaped any change.

Current prime minister Andy Burnham has done little to settle nerves either. He has been openly critical of Adult Gaming Centres, one of the three venue types alongside betting shops and bingo halls that depend on gaming machines, and has backed giving local authorities powers to limit how many bookmakers can operate in their areas.

That combination of pressure has triggered what SBC News describes as one of the gambling industry's largest coordinated lobbying efforts in recent memory, reflecting how much of the UK betting economy, and some distinctly British sports, rest on MGD.

Horse racing is among the sectors exposed. Although betting on the sport was spared direct duty rises in 2025, part of its funding comes through the Horserace Betting Levy, paid out of bookmakers' gross profits, which would suffer if betting shops close. Flutter Entertainment has already cut 1,400 jobs as a cost-saving move, and Betfred founder Fred Done has said a 40% MGD rate could empty the high street of betting shops entirely by 2030. Sponsorship income for racing has also fallen 17% year-on-year, according to figures reported by the Racing Post.

Greyhound racing faces a similar knock-on risk. Abbie MacGregor, Director of Corporate Affairs at the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, told SBC News that the sport is "fundamentally a betting shop product," with most bets placed there rather than on-course. She argued the policy would be self-defeating: "you're taking tax, but then you're losing all the revenue that the betting shop provides, all the revenue that bookmakers, greyhound racing, horse racing provide, and then you've got people who are unemployed and potentially have to go onto the benefits system."

Bingo operators, who celebrated the scrapping of bingo duty in last year's Budget, are also watching closely. Nicole Garrett, chief executive of the Bingo Association, told GB News that 102 of the 239 clubs still trading would become loss-making if MGD doubled to 40%. Responding to the Ballinger letter's suggestion that bingo would be unaffected, she said it had misrepresented the sector's argument, adding that while not every club would shut, a significant number would if MGD rose that far.

The industry's position should become clear when the Chancellor delivers the Budget on 28 October.