UK gambling tax rise not designed to send a signal to betting sector, says UK Culture Secretary 

By Will Durrant, PA Political Staff 

Increased gambling taxes were not designed to “send a signal” to the sector, the UK’s Culture Secretary has said. 

Lisa Nandy defended the Chancellor’s decision to raise taxes on online gaming and betting, in a move set to raise £1.1 billion by 2029. 

The remote gaming duty, which applies to online games, will rise from 21% to 40% next year, while online sports betting – excluding horseracing – will increase from 15% to 25% from April 2027. 

Taking questions in the Commons, Ms Nandy said the UK Government had tried to focus taxes on parts of the gambling industry which face the lowest costs. 

She told MPs she was “working closely with the Chancellor to ensure the measures that she announced yesterday protect people who gather great joy from an industry that is worth huge amounts to the UK economy and also enjoyed by millions, in particular, to protect bingo halls, dog tracks, racing tracks, pubs and coastal communities”. 

The measures will “start to make a significant dent in the number of children living in poverty”, Ms Nandy added. 

Polly Billington, the Labour MP for East Thanet, warned that “the fact that people have a casino effectively in their pocket destroys lives and destroys families”. 

She asked how gambling policies can “protect more of those families and those individuals who end up being exposed to some of the most insidious practices of the gambling industry”. 

The Culture Secretary replied: “I think where we differ slightly is that for me and for our Government, this is not about sending a signal to the gambling industry.” 

“This is simply about making the right choices and the fairest choices in order to reverse some of the damage that the last government has done. Gambling is something that is enjoyed by millions of people in this country without harm, but for a minority, it does cause significant harm.” 

“It’s why we introduced the gambling levy to make sure that we could invest in prevention and support for those affected and also why we’ve allocated an additional £26 million to the Gambling Commission over the next three years to increase investment resources and capacity to tackle the illegal market.” 

Conservative MP Charlie Dewhirst claimed Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s announcement could see £6 billion of gambling stakes move into the black market. 

The Bridlington and The Wolds MP asked: “Would she agree with me that if you tax something, it does not necessarily stop it, it does not necessarily stop it happening and it will move problem gamblers into a less regulated and illegal space?” 

In response, Ms Nandy said the British government had “looked at” the issue he raised. 

“In terms of the economic impact, we’ve obviously sought to limit the impact on the high street and to focus the tax rises on parts of the gambling industry which have lower operating costs,” she continued. 

“We’ve also brought forward measures in the Budget to permanently lower business rates for over 750,000 retail and hospitality properties for precisely that reason, which we think will help to mitigate some of the impact on betting shops.” 

Conservative shadow culture minister Louie French had earlier told the Commons: “Alongside the National Lottery, the regulated gambling sector provides over £400 million of crucial sponsorship to British sports, whether that be horseracing, the Betfred Super League, SkyBet EFL [English Football League], William Hill’s sponsorship of Scottish football or direct funding for grassroots programmes.” 

“So after Labour’s short-sighted £1 billion tax raid yesterday, which will fuel the illegal black market, can the minister tell the House how her department will fill the black hole in funding for British sports and what impact assessment her department has done on this and the job losses across the sector?” 

Sport minister Stephanie Peacock replied: “The Chancellor set out the Budget yesterday.” 

“We have made fair choices.” 

Former prime minister Gordon Brown had previously backed raising gambling taxes to fund an end to the two-child benefit cap, scrapping the ban on most families claiming benefits for more than two children, which Ms Reeves announced on Wednesday. 

“Taxing gambling more fairly would fully fund the first crucial step in the war we must wage against child poverty: ending the two-child limit and lifting the benefit cap,” he said last summer.