A war of words has erupted in the British media between HM Treasury and the country’s betting industry after Betfred announced the closure of over 130 shops last week.
A staple of the UK high street, Betfred operates the largest estate of betting shops in the country with over 1,200. The company revealed last week that 132, or around 10%, of these shops will permanently close their doors.
In a statement issued to UK media, company Chief Executive Officer Jo Whitaker attributed the shop closures to the increase in gambling taxes, wage inflation, National Insurance contributions, and general economic uncertainty.
HM Treasury does not quite see it this way. Responding to The Times, a Treasury spokesperson asserted that: “It is wrong to suggest it is the fault of government for these closures.
“Gambling duty rates for high street shops have not changed.”
Has the Treasury got a point?…
The Treasury’s spokesperson isn’t wrong when citing the scope of the tax increases.
From 1 April 2026, Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) went up from 21% to 40%. The clue here is in the name – remote, meaning it is paid by online operators. Revenue from sports bets was also excluded, meaning the tax is effectively on online casinos only.
From April next year, General Betting Duty (GBD) – paid on off-course betting, betting exchanges, and spread betting – will increase from 15% to 25%. However, retail betting is exempt from this.
When crafting the new tax regime late last year, Rachel Reeves, then Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Treasury under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, made sure to exempt retail betting from any tax increases, placing the tax burden largely on online gaming.
This was after extensive industry pushback, with hard fought lobbying by the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and The Sun newspaper, the latter two running the #AxeTheRacingTax and ‘Save Our Bets’ campaigns respectively.
However, the industry’s counterargument is that omnichannel bookmakers which also host an online casino – Betfred, evoke’s William HIll, Flutter’s Paddy Power, Entain’s Ladbrokes Coral to name but a few – will have to sacrifice some of their more inefficient shops to ease the burden on an often-far more lucrative online counterpart.
Betfred and BGC vent frustrations
In the eyes of Betfred and the BGC, the latter being the trade body for much of the UK’s regulated betting and gaming industry, the tax hikes of April 2026 have everything to do with the continued decline of retail betting.
Betfred’s shop closures are the latest in a series of high profile retail rollbacks. The company’s decision follows shop closures across William Hill, Paddy Power (Flutter) and Labrokes’ (Entain) retail estates.
“At last year’s budget, the BGC warned that further substantial tax increases would undermine jobs, investment and growth across Britain’s regulated betting and gaming industry,” read a BGC statement, issued after Betfred announced its shop closures.
The BGC asserted that the closures are “the latest example of those warnings becoming reality”.
“Betting shops are an integral part of Britain’s high streets, supporting local communities, generating vital tax revenues and providing essential funding for British horseracing,” the statement continued.
“Further pressure on these highly regulated businesses will mean more closures, fewer jobs, reduced investment and less money flowing into racing. These are the real-world consequences of the previous Chancellor’s decision to impose excessive tax rises on Britain’s regulated betting and gaming industry.”
It is unclear which direction Betfred is heading in following the shop closures. The group has been enjoying success in recent years, having recovered from a more troubling period in the early 2020s exacerbated by the COVID-19 shutdowns.
A financial statement published back in January 2026 put group revenue across 78 weeks ending 30 March 2025 at £1.45bn, with revenue from the 53 weeks before that coming in at £908m.
Retail operations accounted for nearly £900m of the 78 week revenue, showing the importance of Betfred’s brick-and-mortar estate and that there is still strong demand for retail betting.
Online gambling was a fair distance behind, making up the remaining £563.6m of company revenue.
Gross profit for the 78 weeks ending 30 March came in at £1bn.
Only time will tell how the shop closures affect Betfred, with the 132 venues most likely going to be the least cost-effective and least profitable ones.
Another element to consider though is the general decline of retail betting. Gambling Commission stats have shown retail betting gross gaming yield (GGY) to be stagnant at best, though not in terminal decline with most drops tending to be around 2% from quarter to quarter.
The fact that retail betting shop closures were occurring way prior to the conversations around tax year, such as the closure of 51 Betfred shops between 2021-22, may suggest that further closures were inevitable – the tax hikes of April 2026 just sped the process up.
Nonetheless, Betfred leadership remains adamant that over-taxation and over-regulation will continue to drag UK retail betting. The Gambling Commission’s rollout of Financial Risk Assessments (FRAs), much to the industry’s chagrin, is another regulatory cherry on the cake of fiscal frustration.
“Over-taxing, over-regulating makes it so difficult,” Fred Done, Betfred’s founder and owner, told BetfredTV, its inhouse media channel, as reported by the Racing Post.
“We’re not just competing with (bookmakers) in this country now but across the world. If you make it difficult for people to bet and make them have to show documents, most people are not going to want to do that. Why do we make it so difficult?
“We were the leading independent bookmakers in this country and as bookmakers I think we were the best in the world. We took on the world – we were so good. We’re no longer the best because of what’s happened to us with taxation, regulation and making it so difficult.”