Genting Casinos UK Warns of Closures from Proposed Gaming Machine Duty Rise
Written by Alex Neumann · Oct 2, 2026
Genting Casinos UK Warns of Closures from Proposed Gaming Machine Duty Rise
Genting Casinos UK has issued a direct warning ahead of the upcoming UK Budget that doubling the gaming machine duty from 20% to 40% would impose an additional £16 million in annual costs on the operator and render 13 of its 32 British casinos unprofitable or unsustainable, while placing more than 850 venue jobs plus around 50 support roles at risk of elimination.
The operator's internal modelling shows that several sites would no longer cover their operating expenses once the higher rate takes effect, leading to a situation where continued operation becomes financially impossible for those locations, and teh company has pointed out that site closures would ultimately reduce overall Treasury revenue because lost taxes from affected venues would exceed any gains generated by the increased duty rate.
Details of the Proposed Tax Change
Under the current structure the gaming machine duty sits at 20%, yet the proposed adjustment would lift that figure to 40% and apply across all qualifying machines within Genting Casinos UK venues, and the company calculates that this single change would extract an extra £16 million from its annual cash flow without any corresponding increase in customer spending or machine utilisation to offset the burden.
Those who've reviewed the operator's submission note that the duty applies directly to machine income, so the higher percentage would reduce net revenue retained by each casino while fixed costs such as rent, utilities and staffing remain unchanged, and this combination produces the projected shortfall that threatens viability at the 13 identified sites.
Scale of Potential Site Closures
Genting Casinos UK currently operates 32 casinos across Britain, and the modelling identifies 13 of them as unable to absorb the doubled duty without incurring sustained losses, meaning those properties would face closure proceedings if the measure passes unchanged, and the remaining 19 sites would continue but under tighter margins that limit future investment and maintenance spending.
Observers note that the 13 affected casinos represent a significant portion of the company's physical footprint, and their removal would shrink the overall number of regulated gambling venues available to customers in several regions while concentrating activity at the surviving locations.
Employment Implications
More than 850 venue-based positions stand to disappear if the closures proceed, and an additional 50 support roles in areas such as central administration, logistics and compliance would also be eliminated, bringing the total headcount reduction above 900 people, and the operator has stated that these figures reflect direct employment only without counting secondary effects on suppliers and local service providers.
Those positions include dealers, cashiers, security staff, management teams and technical support personnel whose roles depend on the continued operation of the physical sites, and the loss would occur across multiple cities and towns where Genting Casinos UK maintains premises.
Fiscal Impact on Government Revenue
The company has emphasised that closures would ultimately reduce overall Treasury revenue despite the higher duty rate, because the taxes currently paid by the threatened sites would vanish once operations cease, and the lost corporation tax, business rates and employment-related contributions would outweigh the incremental duty collected from surviving venues.
According to the operator's assessment the net fiscal effect becomes negative once site viability collapses, and this outcome would materialise within the first full financial year after the duty increase takes effect, and the modelling assumes no offsetting growth in player volumes or machine numbers at the remaining locations.
Timing and Budget Context
The warning arrives as the government prepares its next Budget statement, with expectations that fiscal measures could be announced and implemented in the October 2026 window, and Genting Casinos UK has chosen to publish its analysis now so that policymakers have the data before final decisions are locked in.
Those familiar with the submission process note that the operator has supplied detailed site-by-site figures to support its claims, and the document focuses solely on the machine duty change without referencing other regulatory or tax proposals under consideration.
Conclusion
Genting Casinos UK has laid out a clear chain of consequences from the proposed duty doubling, linking the £16 million cost increase directly to the potential loss of 13 venues, more than 850 jobs and a net reduction in Treasury receipts, and the operator's figures stand as the primary source of information on this specific tax measure's projected impact ahead of the Budget announcement.