Kemi Badenoch has blasted the Labour government for placing UK gambling in a “tax doom loop” ineffective for the economy and “cannibalising” the high street.
Criticism by the Conservative Party leader comes as focus turns to the first Autumn Budget of new Chancellor John Healey, and on whether the Treasury will trigger a tax raid on Machine Games Duty (MGD) in the upcoming announcement.
As expected, these rumours have not sat well with the industry and have led to outcries from the likes of Betfred founder Fred Done and Entain Chief Executive Officer Stella David.
Badenoch urged her opposition Labour Party to resist pushing punters towards the black market, warning that “the good companies will go out of business” should there be a continuation of tax rises on the sector.
“Labour are in the tax doom loop. They raise taxes, businesses close, less money comes in, and so they have to raise taxes even further,” she told national news publication, The Sun.
“What they’re doing is just cannibalising business.”
Things appear to be repeating themselves from 2025, when Badenoch’s Conservative party positioned itself as an ally of horse racing in particular during discussions about betting tax in the run up to then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves‘, November Budget.
Badenoch joins licensed industry lobbyists… again
Last October, prior to the autumn statement, Badenoch joined the Save our Bets campaign of The Sun newspaper, in which she branded former Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Reeves as the “fun police” turning Britain into a nanny state.
As party leader, Badenoch has backed Shadow Gambling Minister Louie French’s claim that the former Conservative government took a “balanced and business-friendly” approach to the Gambling Act Review.
The tax burden on UK gambling has been imposed by the Labour Government, impacting independent businesses and to the detriment of UK racing and rural communities.
Badenoch is also not the first person this week to criticise the stringent regulatory measures which the Labour Party has imposed on the gambling industry.
Over the weekend, the abovementioned Done warned that retail betting will become extinct by 2030 in the current environment. David, meanwhile, recently wrote directly to Prime Minister Andy Burnham after the latest round of Entain job cuts, urging him to be sympathetic with the licensed industry.
Many major operators in the UK, like David’s Entain; Paddy Power, Sky Bet and Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment; the upcoming combined entity of evoke and Bally’s Intralot; and Super Group’s Betway, have all had leadership figures come out and say that they could potentially snag market share from mid-tier and lower-tier bookmakers who find themselves under more pressure from tax rises.
That is not to say they are on board with these increases, though. Per Widerström, CEO of evoke, laid bare the negative impacts that the hikes in Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) and General Betting Duty (GBD) would have on evoke following Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget announcement last year.
Grainne Hurst, CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), has also been a consistently vocal critic of tax rises imposed and the impact that they will have.
On Monday, Hurst warned that up to 16,000 jobs,1,500 betting shops and 34 casinos could be lost should a MGD increase be announced.
“Public policy should not be driven by assumptions or ideology. It should be driven by evidence and an honest assessment of consequences,” she wrote.
“Of course gambling harm must be addressed. Our members continue to invest heavily in safer gambling tools, technology and interventions because protecting customers is fundamental to a sustainable regulated industry. But good intentions do not automatically make good policy.
“If ministers follow the SMF’s advice, they will not simply increase Machine Games Duty. They will make a conscious decision to place legitimate businesses under even greater pressure, jeopardise thousands of jobs, weaken horseracing and accelerate the decline of community venues that have served Britain for generations.”
