Income from taxes - United Kingdom

The UK does not levy one "single" tax on gambling, but a set of specialised HMRC duties. They are charged on different products (online casinos, bets, land casinos, machines, lotteries, bingo) on different bases - but all eventually form a significant cash flow to the budget. The Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates that the combined receipts from betting & gaming duties bring in about £3.8 billion in the 2025-26 financial year.

1) HMRC tax card for gambling

Below are the main tariffs (rates & bases) for which HMRC collects income from the industry. Current rates are published on GOV. UK and regularly updated.

Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) - 21% of the profit (gross gaming yield, GGY) of remote games (online casinos/slots, other "gaming" products).

General Betting Duty (GBD) - 15% of "net stake receipts" at fixed rates (sports, etc.); Separate down/up rates apply for spreads (3 %/10%).

Pool Betting Duty (PBD) — 15% от «promoter’s net pool betting receipts».

Gaming Duty (for land-based casinos) - progressive scale for GGY bands: 15%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%.

Machine Games Duty (MGD) - on "net takings" from slot machines: 5% (cheap games), 20% (up to £5 per game), 25% (games with a bet over £5). The definition of replicated machines and rules is in a separate HMRC notice.

Bingo Duty - 10% of bingo promotion profit.

Lottery Duty - 12% of the ticket price/participation in the lottery (including the National Lottery).

2) How much money the budget gets

According to OBR calculations, revenues from the betting & gaming duties total about £3.8 billion in 2025-26, that is, about 0.3% of all tax revenues. This is a landmark of the scale of the "tax" part of the industry (excluding corporate tax, personal income tax of employees, etc.).

Separate operational HMRC publications show robust accruals, such as for Machine Games Duty in the current financial year. This confirms the stability of the "offline" shoulder of receipts (arcades, bingo halls, betting shops, casinos).

3) Tax bases in simple words

GGY (gross gaming yield) - gross operator income: bets minus winnings (for "gaming" products and land casinos).

Net stake receipts - "net rates" (for betting): it is customary to consider gross rates minus payments and certain adjustments.

Net takings (MGD) - "net charges" from automata under HMRC rules (revenue minus winnings and allowable deductions).

• The online casino collected £10 million in bets over the month and paid £9 million in winnings → GGY = £1 million. RGD payable 21% × £1m = £210k. (Excluding bonus-bones and other adjustments that are interpreted according to the HMRC guide.)

4) The National Lottery: Not just tax

Lottery tickets are charged 12% Lottery Duty, but in parallel there is "Good Causes" - targeted contributions to the National Distribution Fund (NLDF). The tax (Lottery Duty) goes to the Consolidated Fund, and the share of "Good Causes" is distributed among the grant managers according to separate rules. (See UKGC/NLDF Lottery Receipts for details.)

5) What is changing: a course towards unification for "online"

In 2025, the Treasury launched a consultation on remote gambling tax reform - the idea of ​ ​ combining the existing RGD/GBD/PBD for "remote" into a single duty. The goals are simplification, predictability and adaptation to a modern product (where the differences between the types of remote games are erased). The results of the consultation and the parameters of a possible "single duty" will determine the tax landscape for the coming years.

6) What it means for operators and the market

Multi-tax accounting. Different verticals are subject to different bases/bets - hence the requirements for accurate product analytics (delta bets/winnings, no-tacking on machines, casino bands).

Compliance cascade. In addition to duties, operators still have responsibilities for KYC/AML, safer gambling, advertising and reporting in UKGC - these are not taxes, but affect costs and planning.

Reform scenarios. Potential unification of bets in "remote" can redistribute the tax burden between betting and casino products; the business must model margin sensitivity on multiple variants (status quo/equalization/increase).

7) Frequent questions

Does the player pay tax on the win?

No, in the UK, taxes are paid by the operator through HMRC's profile duties. Players are not (excluding individual residency/tax cases outside the UK).

Is "Good Causes" a tax?

No, it isn't. This is a separate share of lottery revenue directed to socially useful projects; Lottery Duty (12%) is the tax.

Is it true that the industry "gives" only a couple of percent of the budget?

Even less: the OBR estimates approximately 0.3% of all tax revenue (but the absolute amount is billions of pounds annually).

8) Withdrawal

UK gambling tax revenues are generated by a set of specialized HMRC duties applied to specific products and calculation bases. Rates - from 10-12% (bingo/lottery) to 21% (remote "gaming") and progressions up to 50% (land casinos in GGY bands), and total receipts are consistently several billion pounds a year. A possible unification of "remote" duties is on the horizon: it is important for businesses to track Treasury consultations and simulate the impact on margins and product mix in advance.

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