Betting and Gaming Council

The Betting and Gaming Council says doubling Machine Games Duty would force some casino operators to consider closing up to a third of their venues, with half the threatened closures in the North of England and Scotland. It publishes no method, and a year ago it put a similar job toll on a far smaller rise.

Google will let certified online gambling advertisers buy the slot at the top of YouTube's homepage from 21 October, widening a carve-out that has covered only sports betting since 2022. The notice names no markets, and it arrives in a month when European lawmakers are moving to restrict gambling advertising rather than extend it.

Denmark's government has put its lapsed gambling advertising bill back before the Folketing, with a 10-minute buffer around every live sports broadcast and new limits on who may appear in gambling ads. The clause with the most commercial bite is quieter: affiliates could no longer be paid on players' turnover or losses.

At her first policy panel as gambling minister, Vicky Foxcroft told a Labour conference audience that the consultation on scrapping the Gambling Act's "aim to permit" rule is coming "very shortly". She did not say when, or what will replace a principle that has governed every betting shop and arcade licence decision since 2007.

The first month to reflect the higher rate brought in 108% more online gaming duty than a year earlier, more than the rate rise alone explains. The industry says one month proves nothing; the Treasury, three weeks from a Budget that may double Machine Games Duty, may read it differently.

Genting has shut its Coventry casino after a month-long staff consultation, blaming costs and tax rises the sector has already absorbed. The closure lands four weeks before a Budget that may double Machine Games Duty, and both sides of that argument are already using it.

A contract from the Casino Secrets leak shows the racing pictures and data supplier agreed in 2022 to serve Santeda's brands for a share of their revenue, according to the Guardian. Its owners include bookmakers that have repeatedly warned about the illegal market, and Entain says it has raised its concerns with SIS.

The regulator has confirmed time and loss limits, an on-screen net position and a ban on turbo and slam-stop features for new Category B machines, after more than 1,000 consultation responses. It dropped the plan to retrofit machines already on the floor, which industry estimated would have put about 7,770 of them at risk.

The Mecca and Grosvenor owner says a doubling would shut about a third of its estate and hit around 2,000 staff. Its own accounts suggest the arithmetic is real: on a rough estimate, the rise on Mecca's machines alone would exceed what its bingo clubs earn. The new gambling minister, touring one of its casinos this week, has so far spoken about bingo licensing rather than tax.

The Betting and Gaming Council has launched a campaign built on shop workers' stories and a poll of Andy Burnham's Makerfield seat, a month before a Budget that may double Machine Games Duty. Its job figures are its own; the think tank behind the proposal says the rise would raise up to £458 million.

Replying to Fred Done's forecast of 495 Betfred closures, Kenny told the Financial Times he used "the same script" himself when he represented bookmakers. He wants machines and online slots taxed harder than bets on sport.

The Conservative leader told The Sun that Labour is in a "tax doom loop" and that the operators who follow the rules will be the ones to close. Her intervention lands five weeks before a Budget in which the Treasury is reported to be modelling a doubling of Machine Games Duty, and as the Betting and Gaming Council puts the cost at up to 16,000 jobs.

The Ladbrokes owner says up to a fifth of its 2,000 customer care roles could go, weeks after an H1 that beat expectations and days after its chief executive wrote to the Prime Minister about machine games duty. The cuts are global; the argument is aimed at 28 October.

Six years after the Gambling Industry Committee asked for a public health approach to advertising, the Lords Liaison Committee has followed up and found the recommendations "largely unaddressed". Its answer is a ban, and it says the black-market argument against one did not convince it.

Euromat puts Europe's illegal online market at €12 billion and says it has tripled since 2019. The Betting and Gaming Council promotes a separate report putting the global figure at $50 billion. The two numbers cannot be compared, both were commissioned by interested parties, and both reach the same conclusion about what enforcement is doing wrong.

Flutter has put a number on the retail review it declined to quantify in August. Up to 100 of 506 shops go before the end of the year, with about 400 jobs at risk, and the company names the Budget.

The European Gaming and Betting Association changes leadership on 1 September, with Maarten Haijer stepping down after 13 years as Secretary General. His successor has named the illegal market as the priority.

Grainne Hurst wrote to warn that unlicensed bookmakers will take £800 million in Premier League bets this season, reaching £1 billion a year by 2027/28. The numbers are arguable. The government's own impact assessment conceding the mechanism is not.

The UK Treasury has pushed back against claims that its Remote Gaming Duty and employer National Insurance increases are driving a wave of Betfred shop closures, as the operator and the government trade blame over the future of the high-street betting estate.

Money paid by operators to settle regulatory cases will now flow into the government's Consolidated Fund for discretionary use, rather than being ring-fenced for gambling-harm work, a decision that lands just months after the charity GambleAware wound down.

Flutter Entertainment will cancel its London listing on 3 August 2026 and trade only on the NYSE, formalising a pivot to a US business that now supplies 41% of group revenue. The exit lands amid a brutal UK tax squeeze, but Flutter's own filings suggest growth and investors, not duty rises, are what pulled it west.

$60 billion in legal wagers, and potentially more flowing through the black market. Flutter International chief executive Dan Taylor has used the eve of the 2026 World Cup to deliver one of the industry's clearest warnings yet about the scale of the offshore threat.

A cross-party group of MPs has gone directly to the Culture Secretary with a stark warning about what proposed affordability checks could do to British horseracing. With the Gambling Commission set to decide this month, the political pressure is intensifying.

The latest operator data from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) shows Britain's retail betting shops are in a state of terminal decline, irrespective of any