Betting Tax Rise Could Close Hundreds of Shops, Racing Chief Warns

Chancellor John Healey has raised the tax on betting shop machines, and the head of British racing says the change could do serious damage to the sport.

In his first Budget on 28 October 2026, Healey lifted machine games duty on profits from fixed-odds gaming machines in betting shops from 20% to 25%. Fixed-odds machines are the screen games found in high street bookmakers. The government says the higher rate applies to machines with stakes over £1 and takes effect from April 2027.

Brant Dunshea, chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), the sport's governing body, said the 25% rate could still prove devastating. He warned there was a clear risk that hundreds, if not thousands, of the country's betting shops could close because of the change. There are about 5,500 betting shops in the UK.

Dunshea said racing gets nearly a third of its £350m annual income from betting through high street shops. Each average shop contributes around £25,000 a year to racing, through the Levy, the money bookmakers pay to the sport, and through payments for live pictures and data.

Independent modelling shared with the Treasury before the Budget estimated that British racing could lose £57m a year because of the duty change. Dunshea said the BHA would urgently engage with the government to reduce the impact.

The Treasury had been understood to be considering a rise to 40% ahead of the Budget. The Social Market Foundation thinktank had recommended that figure, and its co-author Gideon Salutin has argued for a bigger increase. Dunshea had earlier described a doubling to 40% as devastating.

The market reacted quickly. Shares in Entain, which owns Ladbrokes and Coral, rose 8% shortly after the announcement. Evoke, which owns William Hill, rose 3.5%.

For racing, the question now is how far the government will move. The gap between 25% and 40% is wide, and the BHA says it will press its case before the new rate starts to bite in April 2027.