Entain and BGC face scrutiny over mixed messaging on UK gambling tax

UK operators and their trade body have been accused of sending conflicting messages on gambling tax rises, according to analysis published by SBC News, which contrasts public warnings of closures and job losses with far more optimistic language used when addressing investors.

Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40% in April, and attention has since shifted to the Autumn Budget, where Machine Gaming Duty could double from 20% to 40%. That prospect has prompted renewed lobbying from operators and the Betting and Gaming Council warning of shop closures and job cuts.

Entain chief executive Stella David made that case directly in an op-ed for The Sun, writing that "more than 2,500 colleagues are under 25" and that the business hires "around 650 young people" a year. She argued that "when a shop closes it doesn't just mean the loss of a business. It means the loss of jobs, training opportunities and career pathways for local people."

SBC News notes that David struck a different tone on an investor call earlier this year, where she pointed to the vulnerability of smaller rivals. "If you look at the shape of the market, the bottom quarter of operators have around one percent share each," she said. "They are simply not equipped to ride the storm of these tax increases. We believe that creates an opportunity for operators with scale to gain meaningful share."

A similar pattern emerges at BGC member level. BGC chief executive Grainne Hurst has warned that "thousands of hardworking people" risk "losing their livelihoods" as venues "that have served their communities for decades" close, adding that towns in the North, Scotland and the Midlands would "pay the heaviest price."

Then-Flutter Entertainment chief executive Peter Jackson offered a markedly different reading two months earlier, telling investors that smaller rivals "are going to be under a lot of pressure" while Flutter had "a very sustainable and clear plan to mitigate the tax changes" and expected "significant growth and benefits" as a result. Bally's Intralot chief executive Robeson Reeves made a comparable point, saying "the large operators should see consolidation" and that firms with sufficient margin "should be able to continue what they do."

Richard Bradley, a lawyer at Poppleston Allen, told SBC News that industry calls for government solutions need firmer grounding. "It is easy to say that the industry needs to provide solutions, but first there needs to be clarity around the concern, the evidence supporting it and the outcome policymakers are seeking," he said.

SBC News's analysis does not dispute that higher duty could squeeze smaller operators while leaving room for larger ones to gain share, nor that executives are entitled to defend their companies' commercial interests. Its conclusion is that the industry's public case against further tax rises is harder for policymakers to weigh when some of its biggest members are simultaneously describing the same changes as a route to a stronger market position.