Rank Puts Machine Games Duty Rise at £9m a Year and Holds This Year's Outlook

The Grosvenor and Mecca owner expects the Budget's five-point rise on higher-stake machines to cost about £9 million a year before mitigation, more than bingo duty's abolition saves it. Its response waits until January.

• The Rank Group estimates that the Budget's rise in Machine Games Duty from 20% to 25% from 1 April 2027 will add about £9 million a year to its costs before mitigating actions
• Duty costs in its year to 30 June 2027 rise by about £2 million, and Rank still expects like-for-like operating profit in line with expectations
• HMRC says about 5,100 operators running some 12,400 premises are affected, including casinos and bingo halls
• The £9 million is about a quarter of the £35 million Rank said a doubling to 40% would cost, and exceeds the roughly £6.4 million a year it saves from bingo duty's abolition
• Rank discloses no mitigation plan, net figure or venue and jobs impact, and will update investors with its interim results on 28 January 2027

Rank Prices the Rise and Leaves the Detail to January

The Rank Group Plc (LSE: RNK), which owns Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca Bingo, said in a regulatory announcement on 29 October that it "notes the increase" in Machine Games Duty (MGD) in the previous day's Budget. It anticipates an annualised additional cost of "c. £9m, prior to the Group undertaking mitigating actions", with duty costs for the year ending 30 June 2027 up by about £2 million. The group "remains confident of delivering Group LFL operating profit in line with expectations for the current year", and will update on mitigation with its interim results on 28 January 2027.

The statement names no mitigating actions, gives no net figure and does not split the cost between Grosvenor and Mecca. It carries no comment from chief executive Richard Harris, nor his pre-Budget warnings about closures and jobs.

HMRC Moves Category B Machines Into the Top Band

HMRC's tax information and impact note, published on 29 October, shows the mechanism. MGD's existing 25% higher rate has applied only to machines costing more than £5 a play. Finance Bill 2026-27 will narrow the 20% standard band to machines whose stake does not exceed £1 and whose prize does not exceed £100; anything above either limit moves to the higher band from 1 April 2027. That catches casino B1 machines and bingo hall B3 and B4 machines. The Treasury's power to vary the limits by order will be amended so they can move "up or down".

HMRC puts the yield at £135 million in 2027-28 and £130 million a year to 2031-32, and estimates that around 5,100 operators running some 12,400 active premises will pay more. It says any pass-through to players through lower returns "is uncertain and will depend on business decisions and behavioural responses".

A Smaller Bill Than Last Year's

Rank put the 2025 Budget's rise in Remote Gaming Duty from 21% to 40% at about £46 million a year, offset by about £6 million from abolishing bingo duty. Its 2025/26 results reported underlying operating profit of £78.6 million against an ambition of at least £100 million in the medium term, and put the annualised bingo duty saving at about £6.4 million. Entain put its own machine duty cost at about £25 million a year before mitigation and promised to offset it fully by the end of 2028; Rank gives no timetable.

The £9m Is Rank's Own Warning Scaled Down

In September Harris said a 40% rate would cost Rank £35 million; five points is a quarter of that rise, and £9 million is roughly a quarter of the cost. Its accounts agree: Grosvenor's gaming machines earned £113.2 million last year and Mecca's £60.1 million, and 5% of the combined £173.3 million is about £8.7 million. Revenue is not the net takings on which duty is charged, so this is approximate, but the estimate looks like extra duty on today's revenue, not a model of how players respond.

Bingo's Tax Cut Has Been Taken Back

Rank called April's abolition of bingo duty "very welcome". A year on, the machine rise will cost the group more than that saved. On the same rough arithmetic Mecca's share is about £3 million, against the £8.9 million of underlying operating profit its clubs made last year, when machines brought in nearly as much as mainstage and interval bingo combined. With Mecca's visits down 3% in the first quarter, the bingo estate has the least room to absorb it.

The Test Comes After This Year

Only one quarter of this year carries the higher rate. The full cost lands in 2027/28, on the machines driving Grosvenor's growth: their revenue rose 14% in the first quarter, when Rank also closed three casinos as no longer economically viable. Whether mitigation means lower returns to players, cost cuts or closures is January's question.

Rank's £9 million is modest beside last year's online tax bill and far short of the doubling it lobbied against. What it does to a smaller Mecca estate and a machine-led Grosvenor is for the interim results to show.