Betfred Warns Tax Rises Could Wipe Out High Street Betting
Betfred’s founder and chairman, Fred Done, has warned the government that continuing to raise gambling taxes could leave Britain’s high streets without a single betting shop by 2030. The 83-year-old bookmaker made the claim in an op-ed for The Sunday Times and in a separate interview with the Financial Times, published this weekend, as his firm also confirmed it is ending its long-running sponsorship of rugby league’s Super League.
What’s actually changed
Done directly referenced the proposal made in June by the Social Market Foundation (SMF) think tank to double Machine Games Duty (MGD) from 20% to 40%.
The UK Treasury is understood to be modelling potential increases to MGD ahead of the first Budget under PM Andy Burnham and new Chancellor John Healey.
Last year’s budget already brought the Remote Gaming Duty up from 21% to 40%, and will increase the General Betting Duty to 25% by April 2027.
Done told the Financial Times he believed there would be no betting shops left by 2030 if the tax pathway continues, dismissing suggestions that the industry has been exaggerating the threat. He said a doubling of MGD would force Betfred to close a further
495 more of his betting shops if MGD is hiked – causing the loss of more than 2,500 jobs.
That would come
on top of the 132 shop closures that were announced earlier this summer, which will see as many as 600 jobs lost.
Alongside those warnings, Betfred has confirmed a change of its own:
Betfred’s founder and Chairman Fred Done has confirmed that the UK bookmaker will cut ties with rugby league’s Super League at the end of the season
, ending a partnership that began in 2017. Done said the decision was taken with a “heavy heart” and
set out that the bookmaker has had to cut back on spending following the recent increase in gambling tax.
The firm has not yet confirmed whether it will continue sponsoring horseracing’s British Classics, sponsorships Done has also hinted could be at risk.
What it means for you
None of this changes your account terms or deposit limits directly, but it matters for anyone who bets in person as well as online. Done argues that if shops close, punters won’t simply stop betting; instead they’ll drift towards operators outside UK regulation. He told the Financial Times that without licensed shops
that would lead punters to bet instead on the black market, with no regulations and no contributions to the Levy that funds racing.
Betfred’s chief executive has previously linked shop closures directly to the tax and cost environment, saying the combined pressures had made continued trading unviable for some branches.
For high street customers, that means fewer physical locations to place a bet, self-exclude in person, or seek face-to-face support from staff trained in safer-gambling conversations — protections that don’t automatically transfer to unlicensed offshore sites.
The bigger picture
This is the latest instalment in a running standoff between Treasury tax plans and the gambling industry that has been building for over a year.
Betfred estimates that the loss of these shops would bring with it 2,475 jobs, £66.8m lost in taxes, and £15.8m in annual horseracing funding.
Entain’s chief executive Stella David has separately warned the Prime Minister that doubling MGD would add roughly £100 million to the annual cost of running its shop business, citing Betting & Gaming Council modelling suggesting up to 1,470 shop closures sector-wide.
The dispute sits alongside the broader safer-gambling reform programme this site regularly covers — stake limits, affordability checks and advertising restrictions — but Done’s argument runs in the opposite direction: that fiscal policy, not consumer-protection rules, is what could ultimately push activity into unregulated channels. Whether the Treasury heeds these warnings will become clearer at the autumn Budget.
Sources
- SBC News – Betfred founder predicts high street betting demise by 2030
- SBC News – Betfred to end historic Super League sponsorship this season
- Racing Post – ‘I believe that by 2030 we will have no betting shops’ – Betfred founder has stark warning for the chancellor
- NEXT.io – Betfred boss blames tax hikes for end of rugby league sponsorship
- TheLines.com – Fred Done Warns of Betting Shop ‘Death’ By 2030
