Five £20 notes vanished into a Peterborough slot machine in about five minutes during an undercover visit, the Guardian reported, days before the chancellor raised tax on such venues.
The reporter’s consolation prize was a free KitKat. According to the Guardian, staff hand out snacks like that to keep customers at the machines for longer.
It was lunchtime on a Thursday, and the paper described dozens of other customers going through the same routine around them. Pop music played over the shop speakers throughout.
The tax
John Healey announced the change in his first Budget on Wednesday 28 October. Machine games duty, charged on what venues keep from their machines after paying out prizes, goes up from 20% to 25%.
The chancellor told MPs the money would “support good growth on every high street”, according to trade title InterGame. The higher rate applies to machines with stakes above £1 or top prizes above £100, and it starts on 1 April 2027, according to Gambling.com’s reading of the Treasury documents.
Pubs and seaside arcades keep their lower rate. Adult gaming centres do not get off so lightly. Healey also cut them, and vape shops, out of the business rates relief being offered to other high-street premises.
The Treasury expects the duty rise, together with a separate change in who is liable for the tax on supplier-owned machines, to raise £135m in 2027/28, Freebets reported. That is forecast to reach £150m the following year.
The industry’s response
The tax will also reach betting shops, bingo halls and casinos that host the same category of machine. CasinoBeats reported that Grainne Hurst, chief executive of the Betting and Gaming Council, called the rise a “deeply damaging decision”.
The British Horseracing Authority has warned that the move will cut racing’s income, because betting shops pay into the sport. The Freebets report put the amount at risk at up to £57m.
The industry had feared worse. Before the Budget, Reuters reported, a study commissioned by the council claimed that doubling the duty could close up to 1,470 betting shops and cost 15,900 jobs. The actual rise is much smaller than that, and gambling shares went up on the day, according to Freebets.
It is the second Budget in a row to raise gambling taxes. Remote gaming duty on online casino products went up to 40% in April 2026, and general betting duty is due to reach 25% in April 2027.
The Guardian’s visit shows what the tax falls on. Whether the higher rate changes how these shops treat their customers is not something the Budget documents address.
A further consultation on moving duty liability onto machine suppliers is under way, with any change due from April 2028.
Sources: The Guardian, Reuters (via Yahoo Finance), InterGame, CasinoBeats, Freebets.com, Gambling.com
This story was compiled by the MDW Newsdesk with AI-assisted tools, using the reporting credited above.
