There has been plenty of noise around UK gambling tax recently, particularly since Remote Gaming Duty jumped from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026. That is a pretty hefty increase, and it naturally raises the question of what it has done to the online gaming industry.
Has it damaged the market? Well, not quite in the way you might expect.
Operators Are Paying More
The biggest change is pretty obvious. Online gaming operators now hand over 40% of their remote gaming profits in tax, compared with 21% previously. The change applies to online casino-style gaming, including slots.
That’s a sizeable extra cost for operators, and they have to find somewhere to absorb it.
One obvious place is the amount they spend on promotions. Players may notice that more than they notice the tax itself. Bigger welcome offers, regular promotions and other bonuses can become harder to justify when a much larger slice of gaming profits is going to the Treasury.
So while players aren’t technically paying the tax directly, they can feel some of its effects through what competitive online casinos are prepared to offer.
The Rules Were Already Changing
And tax isn’t the only thing online casinos have had to deal with.
UK players have already seen restrictions on online slots, including stake limits. The maximum stake for adults is £5, while players aged 18 to 24 have a £2 limit. There are also tighter rules around how games operate, with features such as autoplay and turbo-style functions removed from the UK market.
Then there is the wider compliance burden. Operators have to keep a close eye on customers, transactions, safer gambling requirements and a growing list of regulatory obligations.
It’s a very different market from the relatively loose online casino world of 15 or 20 years ago.
But Are Players Disappearing?
This is where the argument gets interesting.
The latest Gambling Commission figures don’t exactly show players abandoning online gambling. Between January and March 2026, the remote casino, betting and bingo sector generated £2.2 billion in GGY, with remote casino accounting for £1.5 billion, or 68.3% of the total.
The Commission’s separate online market figures also show total online GGY at £1.55 billion for the same three-month period, up 7% compared with January to March 2025.
There is an important timing point here, though. The 40% tax rate only started on 1 April 2026, so these figures mainly tell us what the market looked like immediately before the new rate came into effect.
Still, they don’t suggest an industry struggling to attract players.
What Does It Mean for Players?
For the average player, the biggest difference may simply be what isn’t being offered.
Operators still want customers, so they haven’t stopped competing. But with higher tax and stronger compliance costs, there is less room for generous promotions.
The games are still there. People are still playing them. Online casino GGY remains a major part of the British gambling market.
So has UK gaming tax harmed the online gaming industry?
It has certainly made life more expensive for operators. That’s not really in dispute.
But so far, the available figures don’t point to players disappearing or the online casino market collapsing. The more noticeable effect for players is likely to be a tighter promotional environment, while operators work out how to make the new numbers add up.
In other words, the tax bill has got bigger. The online casino hasn’t gone anywhere.
Asked by Lobby hacks about his past comments on Trump (“any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now”) Burnham was blithe:
“Politicians say things throughout their career, but now the important thing is to focus on the moment you are in.”
Were it so easy…