Chancellor Weighs Doubling Slot Machine Duty to Raise £460m

A plan to double machine games duty could raise up to £460m a year for the Treasury — and it has put most of the betting industry on a collision course with the chancellor, John Healey, ahead of his first budget.

The Social Market Foundation, the thinktank most vocal in pushing for the increase, argues that lifting machine games duty from 20% to 40% on high-street slot machines would bring in between £275m and £460m annually. That sum would come on top of the roughly £610m the levy generated last year.

Healey is reported to be considering the move, according to press reports that have angered gambling industry leaders. Most of the betting sector is now urging the chancellor not to double the duty, arguing the measure would force shop closures and cost jobs across the high street.

The numbers frame the stakes. Machine games duty already contributes about £610m a year to the public finances. Doubling the rate to 40% would, on the Social Market Foundation's estimates, add anywhere from £275m to £460m to that total — a wide range that reflects uncertainty over how much gambling activity would survive the higher rate.

That uncertainty cuts both ways. The industry's warnings about closures and job losses rest on the same behavioural question: whether operators can absorb a doubled duty, pass costs to customers, or shrink their estates. The Social Market Foundation's advocacy suggests it believes the revenue case outweighs those risks.

Healey's first budget will show which assessment the Treasury accepts — and whether Britain's high-street betting shops face their sharpest tax increase in years.