UK Budget Moves Category B Machines to 25% Duty from April 2027
From April 2027, bingo halls, betting shops and casinos will pay the 25% higher rate of Machine Games Duty on Category B machines. The UK Budget did it by lowering the threshold at which the top rate kicks in. The three-rate structure stays put. What moves is where the top tier begins.
Right now the 25% rate only catches machines costing more than £5 a play. Machines priced between 21p and £5 sit on the 20% standard rate. Come April 2027, a maximum charge above £1 or a maximum prize above £100 will be enough to drag a machine into the higher rate. That change, carried in Finance Bill 2026-27, lands squarely on Category B machines in bingo halls, betting shops and casinos. Pubs and seaside arcades keep the lower rate.
A second change shifts who actually pays. Under current HMRC guidance, suppliers aren't liable for the duty even when they take a share of the takings. The premises operator registers and pays instead. From 1 April 2028, suppliers become liable on machines they own that run under profit-share deals. Operators stay liable where they own a machine outright, or where they rent or lease it on fixed terms and control the takings.
Together the two measures are forecast to bring in an extra £135m in 2027/28, rising to £150m in 2028/29.
Entain puts the cost at roughly £25m a year on its UK and Ireland retail operations before mitigation, based on consensus forecasts for FY27 retail net gaming revenue. The group expects to absorb the full amount by the end of 2028 through estate rationalisation, group-wide savings and possible market share gains. FY26 guidance is unchanged, and so is the £500m annual adjusted cash flow target for 2028.
Investors read the outcome as milder than feared. Entain shares traded 4.68% higher at 473.90p after the announcement. Rank Group climbed 8.75% to 85.80p. Evoke added 3.77% to 44.62p.
The Betting and Gaming Council wasn't relieved. Chief executive Grainne Hurst called it a "deeply damaging decision" and said the Chancellor had ignored repeated warnings. The council cited modelling pointing to nearly 9,000 jobs lost and around 1,000 betting shops and casinos closing or coming under serious threat. Regulus Partners estimated the higher rate could shut half of Britain's betting shops over four years and cost racing £57m in levy and media rights income.
Other pressures sit alongside the machine changes. Adult gaming centres lose business rates relief, and this is the second Budget in a row to raise gambling taxes. Back in November 2025, remote gaming duty went from 21% to 40% from April 2026. HMRC's consultation on supplier liability closes at 11:59pm on 20 January 2027 and does not cover duty rates or stake and prize limits.