Kemi Badenoch warns UK gambling tax rises could push “good companies out of business”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has attacked the Labour government’s approach to UK gambling taxation, warning that continued increases would push punters toward the black market and force “good companies” out of business. For licensed PSPs and operators, the point is not the rhetoric — it’s the direction of travel ahead of the first Autumn Budget under new Chancellor John Healey.

1. Badenoch said Labour is trapped in a “tax doom loop”: raise taxes, businesses close, less money comes in, then taxes rise again. Speaking to The Sun, she said the policy is “cannibalising business” and warned that “the good companies will go out of business” if the sector keeps facing higher tax pressure.
2. The current focus is on whether the Treasury will trigger a tax raid on Machine Games Duty (MGD) in the upcoming Autumn Budget. That is the kind of change that matters immediately to UK-facing gambling merchants and their acquiring stack, because duty changes tend to hit operator economics before anyone gets around to writing a policy explainer.
3. The rumour mill has already drawn pushback from industry figures including Betfred founder Fred Done and Entain chief executive officer Stella David. Badenoch said Labour should resist pushing punters toward the black market, which is the part of this debate PSPs watch closely: tighter margins and higher tax loads usually make regulated channels less attractive, not more.
4. This is not Badenoch’s first pass at the subject. In 2025, the Conservative Party positioned itself as an ally of horse racing during betting tax talks ahead of Rachel Reeves’ November Budget. Last October, before the autumn statement, Badenoch joined The Sun’s Save our Bets campaign and called Keir Starmer and Reeves the “fun police” turning Britain into a nanny state.
5. The Labour government’s tax burden on UK gambling has also been criticised by licensed industry lobbyists as harmful to independent businesses, UK racing and rural communities. Badenoch echoed that line, and she also backed Shadow Gambling Minister Louie French’s view that the previous Conservative government took a “balanced and business-friendly” approach to the Gambling Act Review.

Several large UK operators are already thinking in a familiar way: higher taxes can squeeze mid-tier and lower-tier bookmakers first, which can leave the bigger groups picking up market share. Entain, Flutter Entertainment, the upcoming combined entity of evoke and Bally’s Intralot, and Super Group’s Betway have all had leadership figures make that point. The catch is that none of them are cheering for higher tax bills; Per Widerström, CEO of evoke, has already laid out the negative impact of higher Remote Gaming Duty.