Raising the stakes on gambling duty

In the Autumn Budget 2025, the Government announced significant changes to the UK’s gambling duty regime, which represents the most substantial overhaul of gambling taxation in recent years. Measures will be introduced from April 2026 and include changes to Remote Gaming Duty, General Betting Duty and Bingo Duty. 

The HMRC policy paper published on 26th November 2025 suggests that the changes are being made with a view to discourage gambling operators from directing consumers towards products associated with greater risk and harm. In particular, online ‘casino-style’ gaming has been targeted with a significantly higher tax burden being imposed on such activities.  

Changes to gambling duty came as no surprise to the industry, however. Several months prior to the Autumn Budget, over 100 Labour MP’s, backed by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, urged the Government to raise taxes on betting companies to facilitate the removal of the two-child benefit limit. The two-child limit, introduced in April 2017, restricts Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit to a family’s first two children. Changes to gambling duty have been positioned as the most cost-effective way to raise sufficient taxes to tackle the current social crisis and help lift many children out of poverty.

The new framework

The Institute for Public Policy Research suggested that the gambling sector is lightly taxed compared with other consumer facing industries and notes that gambling harm is estimated to cost the Exchequer more than £1 billion annually through pressures on public services. The reforms introduce three key changes with a view, in part, to tackling these issues.

1. Remote Gaming Duty will rise from 21% to 40% and will be chargeable on remote gaming profits for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2026, targeting online casinos and similar remote gaming products. 
2. Changes to General Betting Duty will see a new 25% rate for remote betting, chargeable on remote betting profits from 1 April 2027 onwards. This will apply to all online sports betting apart from remote betting on UK horse racing which shall remain at 15%. Bets placed via self-service betting terminals on licenced betting premises will not be treated as being placed remotely and will remain subject to the 15% rate.
3. Bingo Duty which previously sat at 10% of profits will be abolished, following its repeal by the Finance Bill 2025-2026 with effect from 1 April 2026. The rationale behind this is that it supports lower risk activities and helps to simplify the tax system by removing one of seven gambling duties.

The Government projects that the changes will raise over £1 billion annually from 2027.  

Legal, regulatory, and commercial implications

The reforms disproportionately affect remote gaming operators compared to land-based operators. The Government justify this partly on the basis that remote gaming is considered to have lower operating costs than other forms of gaming. Machine Gaming Duty and land based General Betting Duty (licensed bookmaking premises) saw no changes, and Casino Gaming Duty bands are frozen until 2026-2027, with the usual RPI uprating thereafter. 

The increase in the Remote Gaming Duty rate and the introduction of a remote betting rate of 25% within General Betting Duty are expected to have an impact on an estimated:

• 160 businesses that provide remote betting to UK customers.
• 95 businesses that provide remote gaming to UK customers.
• 55 businesses that provide remote betting and gaming to UK customers. 

Not only will there be an increased tax burden on such operators, but they will also be required to amend their internal compliance and reporting structures to (i) reflect the new tax rate for Remote Gaming Duty and (ii) apply the new General Betting Duty rate for remote bets. Ultimately, it is expected that the market will seek to shift the burden of the increased taxation to end users. Remote gaming operators will now need to consider how best to manage the increased financial burden whilst continuing to make their products attractive to consumers.