Gordon Brown Calls For £500m Machine Gaming Duty Rise
Gordon Brown has called for a rise in Machine Games Duty (MGD) on gaming machines in betting shops and adult gaming centres, arguing the change could raise up to £500 million to help households cope with rising fuel bills.
The former prime minister made the comments on BBC Radio 4's Today programme. He said the money raised should go toward a "crisis and resilience fund" for households facing a fuel bill increase of 4% from October.
"I would support, for example, machine gaming tax, up to £500m could be raised without affecting bingo halls or affecting pubs but these adult entertainment centres," Brown said. "I would put a tax on that and I would use that money to pay for help in the crisis and resilience fund for people who are facing difficulties with their fuel bills."
Brown, who served as prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and as chancellor before that, claimed his successor as Labour leader in Downing Street, Andy Burnham, would back the move. "In the immediate future I think Andy Burnham, I know him well, will want to do something along the lines I am suggesting," he said. The tax debate comes as betting and online casinos operators alike continue to absorb last year's Remote Gaming Duty increase.
What The BGC Said
Brown did not name betting shops directly in his remarks, but MGD applies to Category B gaming machines found in licensed betting offices and adult gaming centres, not the lower-stake machines in pubs or bingo halls that he explicitly ruled out taxing further.
His intervention follows a June 2026 report from the Social Market Foundation (SMF), a think tank with ties inside government, which called for doubling the MGD rate on Category B machines. The SMF estimated the change could raise between £275m and £458m a year.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) has countered that doubling the rate would force the closure of more than 2,900 betting shops, cost over 21,000 jobs and cut £70 million in industry contributions that fund horseracing through the levy and media rights.
This is not Brown's first push for higher gambling taxation. Ahead of last year's Autumn Budget, he called on then-chancellor Rachel Reeves to raise both Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) and MGD to 50%, alongside an additional £100m in support for horseracing. Reeves ultimately raised RGD from 21% to 40% but froze MGD at its existing rate.
What Comes Next?
MGD is currently tiered by stake size, at 5% on stakes up to 20p, 20% on stakes up to £5 and 25% above that, according to the SMF's June report. General Betting Duty on fixed-odds sports betting is also due to rise to 25% from April 1, 2027.
With the autumn Budget approaching, betting shop operators are again bracing for a fresh round of tax proposals. Brown's renewed call adds pressure on Chancellor John Healey to revisit MGD after Reeves left it untouched last year, though no formal government proposal on the duty has yet been published.
The BGC and licensed operators are expected to lobby against any increase in the run-up to the Budget, pointing to the pace of high street betting shop closures already recorded over the past two years. Gambling.com will continue to track the story on our news page as more detail on any government proposal emerges.
