No Changes to Online Gambling Tax in the UK – For Now

The UK’s online gambling industry breathed a collective sigh of relief this week when mooted tax increases were not included in the government’s autumn budget.

Earlier in the month feathers had been ruffled when the Guardian reported that 2 influential thinktanks had argued the case for sizeable increases.

The first from the Social Market Foundation (SMF) recommended the UK’s remote gaming duty (RGD) be doubled from its current 21% to 42%. They claimed such an increase would raise just under £1 billion in extra tax revenue which could be put toward various public welfare initiatives.

The second recommendation came from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) who went even further, suggesting the RGD should be increased to 50%. They also suggested a doubling of the 15% duty applying to land based bookies for a total boost in take of almost £3 billion.

Understandably neither of the recommendations were warmly welcomed by the industry.

The consensus response was that duty increases of those amounts would see a mass exodus of licenses operators from the market. Share prices of listed operators plunged on the news – Evoke, Entain and Playtech were all down around 15%.

No Change for now. 2025 a different story

The industry was spared any of the feared carnage with taxes left unchanged in Labour’s budget, handed down on 30 October. But future changes, albeit not as drastic, were forewarned in budget papers which read,

“The government will consult next year on proposals to bring remote gambling (meaning gambling offered over the internet, telephone, TV and radio) into a single tax, rather than taxing it through a three-tax structure. This will aim to simplify, future-proof and close loopholes in the system,”

Exactly what those future changes will look like was not detailed.

The current three-tax structure referred to comprises:

• General Betting Duty (GBD) of 15% on fixed odds, totalisator bets and betting exchanges
• Pools Betting Duty (PBD) of 15%, and
• RGD of 21%, increased from 15% in 2019.

Some commentators have speculated 21% across the board may be the single number applied. This could be optimistic.

There is definitely a trend of rising online ambling taxes across the EU.

The Netherlands Ministry of Finance proposed in its most recent budget a 2 stage increase in the Dutch Betting and Gaming tax (BGT). From the current 30.5% it will jump to 34.2% on 1 January 2025 and then to 37.8% on 1 January 2026.

Meanwhile in Sweden remote gambling taxes increased from 18% to 22% in July 2024.