As 2026 begins, the UK’s betting and gaming sector stands at a critical juncture—not due to market instability, but as a result of deliberate political intervention.
Long celebrated as a global leader in innovation and investment, the UK’s regulated industry supports over 100,000 jobs while maintaining world-class consumer protections. However, the sweeping tax hikes confirmed in the 2025 Budget have introduced a profound risk. Industry experts warn that these punitive measures will inevitably distort consumer behavior, undermining the safe, regulated market and funneling billions in revenue towards the dangerous, untaxed illegal black market.
The Treasury’s decision to hike taxes on online betting and gaming is not just short-sighted but dangerous, particularly given the scale of regulatory reform the sector is already delivering in good faith. Those reforms were designed to protect consumers within a safe, regulated market. Piling significant new taxes, on top risks achieving the opposite, driving customers away from regulated operators and towards the black market.
The betting and gaming industry currently contributes £6.8bn to the UK economy, supports 109,000 jobs, pays £4bn in tax and underpins large parts of British sport and culture. Around 22.5 million adults place a bet each month in a safe, regulated environment, with problem gambling rates at just 0.4% according to recent NHS surveys. That is not an accident, it is the result of a regulatory system that has worked.
Independent analysis from Frontier Economics shows up to 1.5 million people in Britain are already gambling on unlicensed sites, staking as much as £4.3bn a year outside UK regulation. Even the Office for Budget Responsibility warned that the tax plans will push more consumers into the black market.
Once customers leave the regulated market, they are very hard to get back. Illegal operators do not carry out age checks, offer safer gambling tools, contribute to treatment or pay a penny in UK tax. They exist entirely beyond the reach of British regulators, yet government policy has put rocket boosters under their competitive advantage over regulated operators.
“At the crossroads the Government has already headed down the wrong road. The question is whether it is prepared to turn back before lasting damage is done, or will they simply allow the black market to dictate the future of betting and gaming in the UK which will only result in harm for the consumer, the Exchequer, jobs, sports and business,” Grainne Hurst, CEO of Betting and Gaming Council.
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