One Year On: How the Online Gaming Tax Rise Is Reshaping Choice
A year after the Treasury announced a near-doubling of the tax on online casino profits, fresh figures are starting to show what that change has actually done to the market you play in. New Chancellor John Healey delivers his first Budget this Wednesday, with another gambling tax rise widely expected, giving extra weight to a review published this week of how operators have coped since the last one.
What’s actually changed
It was then-Chancellor Rachel Reeves who, in last November’s Autumn Budget,
used her Autumn Budget to announce a near-doubling of remote gaming duty (RGD)
. The new 40% rate on online casino, slots and similar games of chance took effect on 1 April 2026, up from 21%. A separate general betting duty rise, from 15% to 25% on online sports betting, follows in April 2027, with
bets on UK horse racing, self-service betting terminals, spread betting and pool betting carved out of the increase
. Bingo duty was scrapped entirely to support land-based venues, while casino gaming duty bands were frozen for 2026-27.
The government expects the combined changes to raise over £1 billion a year, but it has also acknowledged the trade-off: its own impact assessment said it expected
operators to pass on up to 90% of the duty increases to consumers by increasing prices or reducing payouts, which it said would reduce demand and cut the overall yield of the measure by £500 million by 2029-30
.
Gambling Commission data cited by iGaming Business shows that as of 31 March 2026, just before the new rate began,
there were 2,154 licensed gambling operators in the market, a 1.1% decrease compared with the same point in 2025
. That might sound alarming, but
the total had actually fallen every year between 2017 and 2025, and the latest drop was a marked improvement on previous years
. Overall industry revenue also rose, with
total gross gambling yield up 4.4% to £17.5 billion, while remote casino, betting and bingo activity surged 6.9%
.
What it means for you
For individual players, the clearest effect so far is which brands are thriving and which are struggling, rather than any single new rule on your account. Big, diversified groups appear best placed to absorb the extra tax: Entain’s latest quarterly results showed
UK and Ireland online NGR rising 14% year-on-year
, and the company had previously flagged
around £200 million in additional annual costs and a projected £150 million cut to underlying profit by 2027
. Evoke, the owner of William Hill and 888,
withdrew its medium-term financial targets entirely and reportedly began considering asset disposals, estimating annual duty costs of £125 to £135 million
. At the smaller end of the market, operators including
Lottomatrix and Small Screen Casinos chose to exit the UK market
rather than absorb the hit.
If your usual site is one of the larger brands, you’re unlikely to notice much change beyond tighter bonus terms or marginally worse odds, as those costs get passed through. If you play with a smaller or niche operator, it’s worth keeping an eye on whether they’re still actively promoting in the UK, since this is exactly the segment most likely to scale back, merge, or leave the market as margins tighten.
The bigger picture
H2 Gambling Capital’s managing director Ed Birkin told iGaming Business the full effect of the duty rise has yet to show up in the numbers, arguing operators are still fighting hard for market share despite the higher tax burden, telling the outlet
“I don’t think it’s having a material impact yet”
on gross gaming revenue. Even so, several major groups have since announced cost-cutting measures, with
Flutter announcing a business restructuring
among the most notable moves.
This all lands just as the sector braces for Wednesday’s Budget, where
new Chancellor John Healey is set to deliver his first Budget, with a rise in machine games duty widely expected
. Taken together, the pattern looks less like a one-off shock and more like the start of a slower reshaping of who gets to operate in the UK market at all – with implications for how much genuine choice and competition is left for players further down the line.
Sources
- iGaming Business – How has the UK operator landscape changed since the RGD hike was announced?
- iGaming Business – UK sector hit with 40% remote gaming duty, new remote betting tax from 2027
- Senet Group – UK Announces Major Overhaul of Gambling Tax
- Absolute Digital – The 40% Tax Bombshell: What the UK’s Remote Gaming Duty Hike Means for iGaming Operators
- Casino No Deposits – UK’s Remote Gaming Duty Surge: Industry Braces for Impact
