The government used its Budget on 28 October to raise the tax paid on higher-stake gaming machines in Great Britain. From 1 April 2027, any machine with a maximum stake above £1 or a top prize above £100 will move into the 25% higher rate of Machine Games Duty (MGD), up from the 20% standard rate most of those machines pay today. HM Revenue & Customs set out the detail in a policy paper published the following day.
How the duty works now
The duty is worked out on what a machine keeps: total stakes, less the prizes it pays back to players. There are currently three bands. A 5% lower rate covers machines where play costs no more than 20p and the top prize is no more than £10. A 20% standard rate covers machines that cost no more than £5 to play. Anything above that pays the 25% higher rate.
The Budget leaves the 5% band alone but pulls the dividing line between the standard and higher rates down sharply. Under the new thresholds, the 20% rate will only apply to machines with a maximum stake of £1 or less and a maximum prize of £100 or less. Everything above that line pays 25%.
Who pays more
HMRC says the businesses most affected are adult gaming centres, bingo premises, betting shops and casinos, which are where higher-stake machines are concentrated. It estimates there are around 5,100 MGD-registered operators across roughly 12,400 active premises. Lower-stake machines of the kind found in pubs and seaside arcades keep their current rate.
The measure is not yet law. It is being legislated through the Finance Bill 2026-27. HMRC’s costing, certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility, puts the extra revenue at £135m in 2027-28 and about £130m a year after that.
A smaller rise than the industry feared
Before the Budget, the industry had been lobbying against a doubling of MGD. Reuters reported that analysis commissioned by the Betting and Gaming Council claimed that doubling Machine Games Duty could close up to 1,470 betting shops and cost 15,900 jobs. The final measure stops well short of that, but it lands on a land-based sector that is already absorbing other increases.
Online gaming has carried most of the recent tax burden. Remote Gaming Duty on online casino and slots rose from 21% to 40% in April 2026, and a new 25% rate of General Betting Duty for online betting, excluding horse racing, is due to start in April 2027. Both were announced in the November 2025 Budget, not this one.
What it means for players
Nothing changes at the machine today. The new rate does not take effect until April 2027, and it is a tax on operators’ takings rather than a charge on each stake.
That said, operators facing higher costs tend to look for savings, and venue-based players may notice the effects over time: fewer high-stake machines, changes to game mixes, or further shop closures in some areas. The legal limits on what a machine can pay out or accept as a stake are set separately under gambling regulation and are not changed by the Budget.
If you play gaming machines in a betting shop or arcade, the same rules of thumb apply as anywhere else: set a budget before you start and treat it as the cost of entertainment. Our responsible gambling page lists free support services and tools such as deposit limits and self-exclusion.
Sources
- Machine Games Duty: increasing the rate on higher stake and prize machines (HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK))
- Gambling duty changes (HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK))
- UK's Healey increases taxes on gambling companies in budget (Global Banking & Finance Review (Reuters))
Written in our own words from the sources above. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it and log it on our corrections page.
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The BettingSeeker News Desk covers regulation, operator news and safer gambling developments in the UK, the US and Canada. Every story is based on primary sources such as regulator announcements, government publications and company filings, or on reporting by established news outlets, and every source is linked at the end of the article.
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