Betting industry lobbies against MGD doubling ahead of UK gambling tax Autumn Budget 2026

The Betting and Gaming Council has launched a campaign against a possible doubling of Machine Games Duty, as the government prepares its Autumn Budget 2026 and weighs a rise in UK gambling tax.

The BGC is, in SBC News's description, the UK's biggest trade body for the betting industry. Its campaign is called "Back Our Betting Shops", and it responds to reports that ministers are considering doubling all three MGD rates: the lower rate from 5% to 10%, the standard rate from 20% to 40% and the higher rate from 25% to 50%.

Jobs and the high street

Grainne Hurst, the BGC's chief executive, put employment and high street presence at the centre of the argument. "Behind every betting shop is a team of real people earning a living, supporting their families and playing a part in their local community," she said. She described the shops as community hubs, familiar places on the high street where people work, meet and socialise, often with staff who have known their customers for years.

Hurst also tied the sector to sport, saying betting shops "help support British sport, from horseracing to rugby league, including clubs and competitions that are themselves at the heart of communities across the country".

On the contraction of the retail estate so far, she said: "We have already seen thousands of shops close and thousands of jobs disappear." Further tax increases, she warned, "could mean more people losing their livelihoods, more empty shopfronts and more communities losing businesses they value". The campaign, she said, is about "telling the stories behind the statistics".

Where the numbers come from

Those figures come from the BGC itself. SBC News does not break them down or attribute them to an independent source, and it presents them as the industry's case rather than as verified data.

The specific numbers in the report come from individual operators. Betfred, which SBC News calls the single largest chain of retail operators on the UK high street, has more than 1,300 shops. Its founder, Fred Done, told the Financial Times that betting shops will become extinct on the UK high street by 2030. Stella David, chief executive of Ladbrokes Coral operator Entain, made similarly gloomy predictions in a letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, appealing to betting shops' place in local communities and the employment they provide.

Both companies have closed sites this year. Betfred announced in the summer that it would shut about 10% of its retail estate. Entain's closures have been mainly in Ireland, SBC News reports. William Hill, owned by evoke, and Paddy Power, owned by Flutter Entertainment, have also rolled back their retail estates.

Who wants higher gambling taxes

Support for higher gambling taxes has come from outside the industry. Former prime minister Gordon Brown was vocal in calling for increases in online gaming taxes last year, and the Social Market Foundation is among the groups backing reform. SBC News names both.

Burnham's announcement over the weekend of plans for an NHS-style social care system, made "even if it means tax hikes across the board", has fed into the debate. It is SBC News's assessment that gambling is an easier target for a revenue-raising Budget than other industries, and would cause less public anger, which makes an MGD increase more likely. That is the outlet's analysis, not a government decision.

The BGC fought a similar battle in 2025 against increases to Remote Gaming Duty and General Betting Duty, alongside the British Horseracing Authority's "#AxeTheRacingTax" campaign and The Sun's "Save Our Bets".

The Autumn Budget is due later this month. A doubling of Machine Games Duty is reported to be under consideration, but no decision has been announced.