The British gaming sector is filled with lively debates over prospective increases in taxes before the autumn budget. In the past few weeks, there have been furious arguments over media platform with the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown spearheading the demand for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to raise serious taxes on gaming businesses.
It is an emerging story that has generated quite the buzz among gaming fans, with heated resistance coming from the stakeholders as well as industry officials such as the Betting and Gaming Council.
🔔 In the meantime, the UK Gambling Commission has revealed some intriguing news just the other day – Q2 2025 saw record-breaking online slots revenue with incredible sector growth that everyone is buzzing over.
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Former pm brown sends message to chancellor
Former Labour Prime Minister Brown spoke to the BBC and The Guardian earlier in August. He told media figures that he thought online gambling operators were undertaxed, and that a hike could raise several billion to fund social care. He asked Rachel Reeves directly to consider the idea in the upcoming budget.
Although Brown didn't suggest an exact figure for any tax rises, there are some floating about. Days after Brown's media push, think tank The Institute for Public Policy Research published its concrete vision for any gaming tax increase. It proposed the following tax hikes:
- Remote Gaming Duty (online gambling tax) to increase from 21% to 50%
- Machine Gaming Duty (land-based gambling) from 20% to 50%
- General Betting Duty (all other gambling) including sports betting and poker, which the IPPR suggested should rise from 15% to 25%
There are literally hundreds of options in the UK online gambling market, and the choice for gamblers can be quite overwhelming.
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👉🏻 The UK's various gambling taxes currently make £2.4 billion a year from operators. The IPPR report said the above tax rises would take that figure to £5.4 billion a year.
Gambling tax rises are also popular among the UK public, consistently nearing the top of polls for which taxes should go up if rises are required. Reeves has yet to publicly respond to the calls.
Gambling business leaders respond
Industry leaders are raising compelling concerns about the potential consequences of tax increases. Their primary worry centres on a domino effect where operators might slash odds and reduce promotional offers to offset revenue losses.
This situation could directly affect players, who might be encouraged by better value offshore casinos offering relief from the UK tax burden.
📉 Recent experiences in some US states are instructive, rises in gambling tax on newly legalised sports betting prompted operators to reduce spend on promotions, with the eventual effect on demand by the consumer, producing less taxable revenue than expected.
The sector has identified some strategic objections regarding potential increases in taxes:
- Recent regulations also already set stake limits on online slots this year
- Sports betting providers, with notoriously low margins, may reduce or leave the market altogether
- Tax increase could help giants of betting but destroy little independent betting businesses
- skill games such as poker betting and sporting betting warrant separate consideration from games involving pure chance
💡 The horse racing business has been particularly vocal about opposition to the move. It already pays an extra 10% levy on taxes. Operators said a tax hike could cost a billion in lost revenue, impacting sector employees, punters and public finances.
The uk online slots market hits record highs
It came with thrilling news for the second quarter report by the UK Gambling Commission, indicating robust growth throughout the nation's betting markets during Q2 2025.
- Online gaming revenue saw steady growth over the three-month period, finishing 2% above 2024.
- Combined total revenues for the operators amounted to £1.49 billion compared to £1.46 billion during the corresponding period in the previous year – an accomplishment which verifies the resilience and appeal of the sector.
- The top-performing sector by far was online slots whose gaming revenue surged 14% to spearhead the growth.
- Such stellar performance is all the more remarkable considering that the number of monthly active game players dipped 10% over the period to an average 12.7 million monthly players.
UK sports bookmaking was hindered by handle falling 9% versus Q2 2024, to £570 million. On-land gaming and online poker income also fell slightly during the period, but the stellar performance of online slots completely made up for these deficiencies.
🚀 A new development is also reshaping the physical casinos in the UK. In July, the government authorised the law permitting larger land-based casinos to largely increase the number of slot machines they provide – in some instances adding hundreds of extra machines.
It also creates the potential for premises to launch new-of-the-line games sporting an overseas market heritage, most prominently US-originated slots with the potential to re-capture customers' enthusiasm for bricks-and-mortar casino action.
New gaming floors will offer customers in the UK greater diversity and entertainment choices with the intention of providing the real casino experience.
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