BGC responds to SMF: "Doubling Machine Games Duty would not protect those communities"

The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) said it fundamentally opposes any increase in Machine Games Duty, responding to a Social Market Foundation (SMF) report published earlier this week that proposed a new 40% duty band for Category B gaming machines.

A BGC spokesperson said: "We fundamentally oppose any increase in Machine Games Duty, and nothing in this report justifies such a damaging policy."

The BGC said bingo clubs, betting shops, casinos, working men's clubs and miners' welfare clubs play an important role in communities across the country, and that the regulated sector supports around 109,000 jobs and contributes billions to the UK economy.

The spokesperson said: "Doubling Machine Games Duty would not protect those communities. It would force venue closures, cost jobs and weaken high streets, while benefiting only the growing illegal gambling market, which pays no tax, contributes nothing to local communities and offers none of the consumer protections found in the regulated sector."

The BGC said the SMF report makes no attempt to quantify the venue closures or job losses its proposals would cause. It also pointed to the SMF's Survation polling, which found that 43% of UK adults supported higher taxes on gaming machines, while the BGC argued the results showed most people did not back an increase.

The SMF had proposed applying a 40% Machine Games Duty rate to Category B machines, found in betting shops, adult gaming centres, arcades and bingo halls, while leaving Category C and lower-stake machines unchanged. The think tank estimated the change could raise between £275m ($370m) and £458m in additional public revenue.

The proposal follows the UK Government's decision to double Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% in the 2025 Autumn Budget, a move the SMF argued should now be extended to higher-stakes land-based machines linked to elevated rates of problem gambling.