90 Labour MPs Urge Chancellor To Lift Machine Games Duty
Ninety Labour MPs have written to Chancellor John Healey asking for a new, higher rate of Machine Games Duty (MGD) on Category B machines in the Budget on 28 October.
The letter is dated October 16 and was led by Alex Ballinger, the MP for Halesowen and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Gambling Reform, according to British Journal.
The MPs describe a higher Category B rate as a popular, targeted and proportionate way to raise revenue.
The letter does not name a rate, but it points to modelling from the Social Market Foundation, which found that a 40% rate could raise between £275 million and £458 million a year after allowing for significant changes in player behaviour.
What The Letter Asks For
The MPs focus on B3 machines, which allow stakes of up to £2 and prizes of up to £500. They say lower-category machines would be unaffected, pubs would sit wholly outside the scope of a rise, and the abolition of Bingo Duty would stay protected. MGD currently has three rates of 5%, 20% and 25%, with Category B machines in the 20% band.
The letter asks the Chancellor to apply the principles used at the 2025 Budget, which lifted Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% and scrapped Bingo Duty.
It also cites figures showing that 47% of adult gaming centres are in the most deprived fifth of the country, and polling from the Social Market Foundation and Survation in which 43% of voters backed higher taxes on slot machines in high-street betting shops, against 11% who backed a cut.
How The Industry Responded
The industry had made its case two days earlier. According to British Journal, the chief executives of Entain, Flutter UK and Ireland, bet365, Bally's Corporation, evoke and Betfred wrote to the Chancellor on 14 October, citing EY analysis of a 40% Category B rate.
It found that a further 690 to 1,470 betting shops and 28 to 34 casinos could close, 11,600 to 15,900 jobs could go, and the Exchequer could be left up to £124 million worse off once other tax losses are counted. The EY report has not been published.
The Betting and Gaming Council said in a statement on October 17 that MPs are right to worry about communities and high streets, but that higher taxes on betting shops and casinos would not protect them. It added that more than 600 betting shops have closed or announced closure since the last Budget, with over 10,000 jobs lost or put at risk.
Casino Games Hub
Bingo Sector Disputes The Letter
The Bingo Association said the letter misrepresents its position. In its own statement, it argues the debate is not about Bingo Duty but about MGD on the machines that help keep clubs open.
Its modelling shows a 40% rate would leave 102 clubs, 41% of the total, loss-making and put more than 3,000 of the sector's 7,000-plus jobs at risk.
New Savanta polling it commissioned found support for an MGD rise falls to 23%, with 36% opposed, if it would lead to bingo hall closures. The association wants the rate held at 20%.
