Betfred Owners Took £30m Dividend Amid Tax Warnings
The Done family, owners of Betfred, took a £30m dividend from the business shortly before warning the UK government that a planned increase to machine games duty could force the closure of hundreds of betting shops.
The dividend was disclosed as Betfred's holding company filed its accounts at Companies House this week.
Record Revenue, Warnings Of Closures
Betfred's accounts, covering the year to the end of March 2026, show the Warrington-based firm won a record £996m from customers and booked a pre-tax profit of £64m. The strong results allowed it to pay shareholders, largely trusts benefiting the Done family, an interim dividend of £30m, taking total payouts since 2022 past £105m.
The money is understood to have been reinvested into other family-owned businesses, including property interests.
Despite that performance, Betfred boss Fred Done was among industry figures who signed a letter this week to Chancellor John Healey warning that doubling machine games duty from 20% to 40% could trigger up to 1,470 betting shop closures, 34 casino closures and almost 16,000 job losses across the sector.
A Recurring Argument Over Tax
The Social Market Foundation has estimated that doubling the duty could raise up to £460m for the Treasury. Of the roughly £400m the Done family say they contributed in tax last year, £54m came from machine games duty alone, a figure the accounts suggest would broadly double under the proposed change.
Done has previously told the Financial Times he would not wish to be "reborn" in the UK given its tax burden on high earners, despite the family's estimated £3bn fortune and status as among Britain's biggest individual taxpayers, according to the Sunday Times Tax List.
Betfred has already closed 132 shops this year, citing rising taxes and wage costs, and the company has warned it is prepared to close many more if the higher duty goes ahead in the upcoming budget.
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Not The First Such Warning
This is not the first time Done has raised the prospect of mass closures in response to government policy; the betting site has threatened to shut close to 1,000 shops at various points since 2019 over tax and regulatory changes, and casinos have separately warned of closures under the same proposed duty rise.
The letter to Healey was first reported by Sky News and arrived as the government weighs the wider gambling tax package ahead of the autumn budget, with ministers yet to confirm whether the duty increase will go ahead in its proposed form.
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