Remote gaming duty in the UK will be increased from the current rate of 21% to 40% from April 2026. The gambling tax hike was revealed by the Office of Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) in Wednesday’s autumn budget document, released prior to the chancellor’s prepared speech.
A new general betting duty for remote betting will be introduced in April 2027 at 25%, up from the current rate of 15%. However, the new rate will only be paid on online betting profit and exclude spread betting, pool bets and horse racing bets.
Bets made at self-service betting terminals will also be spared from the new rate,
The chancellor had been hinting at a gambling tax increase in recent months, after an initial consultation was launched in April to consolidate the current three tax rates: remote gaming duty, remote betting duty, and gaming machine duty.
The new rates are expected to raise £4 billion in tax receipts in 2025-26, marking a 9.8% increase on last year. In 2026-27 gambling tax receipts will increase by a further 24.8% to £5 billion.
Elsewhere in the budget, it was announced the current 10% rate for bingo duty will be abolished and casino gaming duty bands will be frozen in 2026-2027.
The government said it expected operators to pass on up to 90% of the duty increases to consumers by increasing prices or reducing payouts. This, it said, will lead to a reduction in consumer demand which reduces the yield from the measure by £500 million by 2029-30.
How have we gotten here?
In April HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Treasury proposed a single remote gambling tax to replace the current three-rate system. The sector hit back at the suggestion, flagging the impact a rise in remote betting duty would have, particuarly on the retail and horse racing sectors.
Various think tanks got involved in the conversation, proposing the government raise the remote gaming duty to as high as 50%.
Since then, the Treasury Select Committee carried out an investigation into what format a gambling tax restructure, or hike, should take. It questioned various sector stakeholders and think tank experts in October about the impact a tax hike could have on problem gambling rates.
It also quizzed members of the BGC on why many operators maintain offshore bases and whether the sector was overstating its concerns for their retail businesses.
In its follow-up report, the committee advised the government to tax verticals separately based on their risk profile.
The government expects to raise £1.1 billion in gambling taxes by 2029-30.