The dust has now started to settle following the disastrous 2025 Budget for the British remote gambling industry, as operators review the drastic action they will need to take to remain profitable after 1 April 2026. That's the date gaming duty will increase from 21% to 40% of remote gaming profits ("profits" are stakes minus winnings (GGR/GGY), less any allowable bonus or free-play deductions).
As we now know, despite opposition from the industry and the Betting & Gaming Council (BGC), which warned of 40,000 job losses and a £3bn ($4bn) tax hit, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced duty increases which the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates will raise £1.1bn in additional tax for the Exchequer by 2029-30. The £1.1bn figure was short of the £2-3.2bn Gordon Brown and thinktanks the Social Market Foundation (SMF) and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) had been calling for prior to the Budget.
Few industries can cope with an overnight doubling of duty rates and there are fears the gambling industry will continue to be an easy target to raise tax revenue, much like the North Sea oil and gas industry which has been decimated by a 78% tax on its profits. The position for the gambling industry could have been worse, as the SMF had called for remote gaming duty to be increased to 50%. However, the increase to 40% stunned the industry and will cause major upheaval, as gaming-focused operators are forced to cut costs by reducing bonuses, marketing and staff numbers.
The increase in remote gaming duty will hit casino-focused operators hardest, but with non-racing remote betting duty also increasing from 15% to 25% on 1 April 2027, most of the online industry will be affected. The only silver lining is for land-based gambling, where duty rates were left unchanged (with the exception of the duty on land-based bingo, which was abolished).
We now wait to see what impact the duty increases will have on the industry, as they are phased in during 2026/2027. For the financial year to the end of March 2025, remote casino, betting and bingo generated total GGY of £7.8bn, with online casino games generating £5.0bn in GGY, £4.2bn of which came from slots games. GGY for remote betting totalled £2.6bn, with football accounting for £1.3bn.
The British online gambling industry will now be subject to some of the highest gambling taxes in the world (comparable European gaming duty rates are 37.8% of GGR in the Netherlands, 28% in Denmark, 25% in Italy and 25-37.5% in Portugal). Despite protests from the BGC, which said the Budget was a "devastating hammer blow to tens of thousands of people working in the industry across the UK," it appears unlikely gambling duty will be reduced in the future.
When reviewing the impact of the Budget measures in its Economic and Fiscal Outlook, the OBR stated that "the behavioural responses to these changes are uncertain but are estimated to reduce the yield by around one-third. We estimate that operators will seek to pass through around 90 per cent of the duty increases by increasing prices or reducing payouts, leading to a reduction in consumer demand which reduces the yield from the measure by £0.5bn by 2029-30." The OBR also projected an increase in black market gambling and a substitution to different forms of gambling and that operators would over time restructure their products to minimise tax costs.
Following the Budget, Flutter Entertainment (Paddy Power, Sky Bet, Betfair), Entain (Ladbrokes, Coral) and Evoke (William Hill, 888, Mr Green) released statements estimating the impact of the duty changes on their future profits and their intended mitigation measures. Flutter estimated that, before mitigation, its annual profits would reduce by $320m in 2026 and $540 in 2027 and said that it expected to offset some of this impact through operational and marketing reductions. Entain estimated that its profits would reduce by £100m in 2026 and £150m in 2027, while Evoke, which earns two-thirds of its revenue in the UK, estimated a reduction of £125-135m.
Regulus Partners, an industry advisory business, has questioned whether the mitigation measures proposed, such as reducing bonuses, will be effective, as high spending British gaming customers have become accustomed to bonuses and will switch their play elsewhere, if bonuses are reduced. Regulus anticipates that the duty changes will lead to increased industry consolidation, a conservative 20% loss of British customers to the black market, a reduction in the number of GB licensed operators, a risk to the funding of the Levy and the risk of a doom loop for the regulated gambling sector in Great Britain.
It is clear that the raising of gambling duties in the Budget will have a major and lasting impact on the online industry. On 10 December 2025, only a fortnight after the Budget, Evoke, which makes two-thirds of its revenue from the UK and made a pre-tax loss of £168.8m in 20245, announced that it was undertaking a review of the Company's strategic options, which could include a potential sale of the Group or some of its assets.
Longer term, it is likely increased taxes will drive innovation in the industry and a move away from reliance on casino, slots and bingo games. There was no change to duty rates on remote pool betting and betting exchanges, so lower taxed gambling activity may be boosted. Similarly, unregulated (and untaxed) free draws, which have recently been the subject of a Voluntary Code of Practice issued by DCMS, are likely to continue to grow at the expense of regulated lotteries and gaming.
Time will tell whether this level of taxation will be a hammer blow to "one of the UK's few globally successful sectors," as predicted by the BGC.
Over the past 12 months, Evoke's share price has fallen over 60%
