Britain’s biggest bookies have reacted with barely controlled fury to yesterday’s Autumn Budget, which featured massive tax hikes, principally targeting their iGaming operations.
The headline figure, a 19 percent online and remote gambling increase–embarrassingly leaked to the media a full two-hours before the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves formally announced her Budget before Parliament–has not surprisingly triggered backlash from Entain, Evoke and Flutter Entertainment, who warn of severe economic consequences and widespread UK job losses.
iGamingFuture spoke with these leading operators. And all of them painted a bleak picture of the future of British gambling.
Economic Wrecking Ball
Stella David, CEO of Entain–parent company of bwin, Coral, Ladbrokes, PartyPoker and Sportingbet–got straight to the point, calling the measures “punitive” and “dangerously short-sighted”.
She told iGF: “We are deeply appalled by today’s decision to punitively increase UK gambling taxes. Today’s Budget is a disaster for British betting and gaming as well as British customers. The only winner is the black market, which has hit the jackpot.”
David called the Chancellor’s decision to raise gambling taxes akin to “taking a wrecking ball to an industry that pumps £7 billion into the economy and supports 100,000 jobs”.
She added: “The short-sightedness of the Government’s actions today will harm customers and benefit illegal operators.”
Thousands Of Job Losses
Evoke–owner of William Hill, 888 and Mr Green–expressed similar alarm. The company said it had paid more than £329 million to the UK Exchequer in 2024, equating to more than 60 percent of its UK profits.
Evoke’s leadership warned that the increase would be unsustainable for the industry, especially smaller UK operators.
Company CEO Per Widerström confirmed plans to retrench.
“We will begin immediately on executing our mitigation plans, which involve a significant reduction in investment into the UK, and, very regrettably, the likely need for thousands of jobs to be cut up and down the country,” he warned.
Like Entain, Evoke also warned of market leakage, saying they believed the measures would “increase customer activity on the unregulated black-market, ultimately reducing the overall monetary amount of tax the gambling industry pays in the UK”.
Less Taxable Revenue
Meanwhile, confident as ever, Flutter Entertainment CEO Kevin Harrington said he “understood” the government’s motivation, but the policy was “deeply flawed”.
Flutter, now headquartered and listed principally in New York City, operates of Betfair, FanDuel, Paddy Power, PokerStars and Sky Bet, among a host of other top brands.
“The Chancellor rightly wants to address harm,” continued Harrington. “But these changes will hand a big win to illegal, unlicensed gambling operators who will become more competitive overnight.
“These black-market operators don’t pay tax and don’t invest in safer gambling.
“At 40 percent, the UK’s remote gaming duty is now above countries such as the Netherlands, where a recent tax increase saw a rise in illegal gambling and a fall in Government receipts.”
Despite this, and the fact that Flutter announced the closure of 57 Paddy Power stores just last month, Harrington remains assured of the company’s strong position.
“Through both our scale and leading position in the UK, as well as the proactive cost initiatives that we are taking, we are well placed to navigate through today’s changes,” he affirmed.
Damage Control
Across the boardrooms of every major UK operator, one theme dominated: Damage control.
Entain, Evoke and Flutter all outlined immediate cost-cutting strategies designed to absorb at least some of the impact of the higher duties.
These measures include sharp reductions in marketing spending, widespread retail shop closures, supplier renegotiations, operational cutbacks and potential changes to customer propositions, likely resulting in less favourable odds, smaller bonuses and fewer promotions.
Operators stress that these steps are not optional but necessary.
And they warn of the inevitable consequences: Massive job losses, weakened consumer offerings, reduced gambling revenue and ultimately lower tax receipts, which would make the whole endeavour pointless, while causing potentially irrevocable damage to the sector.
Pointless Without Enforcement
For Super Group–parent company of Betway and Spin Casino–the heavy tax increases are only tenable with serious enforcement against offshore operators.
CEO Neal Menashe urged the government to ensure that the substantial increase was “paired with robust and strict enforcement against non-paying offshore operators” to help safeguard UK jobs, technology and players.
On the positive side, the budget did indeed include an extra £26 million in funding for the UK Gambling Commission to fight the illegal market.
However, this is a task notoriously difficult and often compared to a perpetual game of Whack-a-Mole as new unlicensed URLs pop up quicker than regulators can shut them down.
What’s next for UK gambling?
We’ll explore this most pressing question in a series of special reports next week.
Watch this space!
