The UK government considering increasing tax on fruit machines or other gambling taxes

16th November 2025

The UK government is considering changes to gambling taxes, including potentially higher taxes on "fruit machines" (machine gaming) and other online gambling. But nothing is fully settled yet.

What the Government Is Considering / Proposals in Play

New Single Remote Gambling Duty

HM Treasury has launched a consultation on replacing the multiple current remote gambling taxes with a single "Remote Betting & Gaming Duty" (RBGD).

The current taxes it might replace include:

General Betting Duty (e.g. fixed-odds betting)

Pool Betting Duty

Remote Gaming Duty (covers online casino games, bingo, poker)

The consultation (which ran until July 2025) is more about how to structure it than fixing the exact tax rate.

Higher Taxes on Riskier Gambling Products

There is political pressure — especially from MPs and think tanks — to raise the tax on "higher-risk" or more addictive products, like high-street slots (i.e. fruit machines) and online casino games.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has proposed increasing remote gaming duty from 21% to 50%, and also hiking machine gaming duty to a similar level.

This is framed partly as a "polluter pays" principle: more harmful gambling forms should pay more tax.

Statutory Levy for Gambling Harm

Alongside potential tax rises, the government has confirmed a statutory levy on gambling firms to fund NHS gambling-harm services.
The Guardian

They're setting a stake cap on online slots: for example, for 18-24-year-olds it's being set as low as £2 per spin.

Concerns & Industry Pushback

Gambling companies are warning that significant tax increases could force some high-street betting shops to close. For example, Betfred has said it may shut many of its shops if the tax burden becomes too high.

Some MPs and industry figures argue that lumping all remote gambling into one tax (RBGD) could have unintended consequences — e.g. pushing gamblers toward riskier products.

What This Means for "Fruit Machines" / Machine Gaming

Machine Gaming Duty (MGD) is already a tax on "machine games that pay out cash prizes," which includes fruit machines / slot machines.

The proposals under discussion could lead to a substantial increase in the MGD rate (some think-tank proposals suggest up to 50%).

That said, land-based gambling (arcades, casinos) is less directly affected by the remote gambling duty changes; the RBGD consultation is focused on online gambling.

Risks & Trade-offs

Revenue vs. behaviour: The government sees this as a way to raise more revenue (some proposals estimate £1-3 billion extra) by taxing more harmful gambling.

Economic impact: If taxes go up too high, gambling companies warn of shop closures, reduced investment, and people moving to the unregulated (black) market.

Social justification: There is a moral / social argument: more harmful gambling = pay more; also, the levy is partly justified to fund gambling harm services.

Finally

The government is seriously considering higher gambling taxes.

The most likely changes seem to be: a new consolidated remote gambling tax (RBGD) + significantly higher duty on “high-harm” gambling like online slots and machine games.

But nothing is finalized; it's still in the consultation / proposal phase, and there's real pushback from the gambling industry.

PHOTO
By Yamaguchi先生, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57295504