Adult Gaming Centres Fund a Rates Freeze the Same Budget Removes Them From

The Budget was published on 28 October 2026. Section 3.9 mentions the increase in passing, referring to machine games "with stakes over £1".

The 25% Rate Is Not New; the Boundary Moves

The Budget does not create a new rate of duty; it simply changes the point at which the higher duty band, currently at 25%, begins. To give some context, at present there are three rates of duty on machine games under the published gambling duty rates for 2026 to 2027: a lower rate of 5% for machines where the maximum cost to play is no more than 20p and the maximum cash prize no more than £10, a standard rate of 20% for machines where the maximum cost to play cannot exceed £5, and the higher rate of 25% for machines where the cost exceeds £5.

Budget 2026 therefore changes the threshold for the higher duty rate, meaning that all machines where the stake exceeds £1, and now also where the prize exceeds £100, will be subject to the higher duty rate of 25%.

£1 and £100 Are the Category C Ceiling

The duty applies to machines that exceed the maximum stake or prize of a Category C machine, which under the Gambling Commission’s summary of machine categories is a machine with a maximum stake of £1 and a maximum prize of £100. Every Category B machine exceeds at least one of these thresholds: B3 and B4 machines both have maximum stakes of £2, and offer maximum prizes of £500 and £400. The duty line now follows the machine categories of the Gambling Act rather than a figure of its own.

The Treasury Expects a Quarter of Lost Stakes to Go Online

The measure is scored at £0 in 2026-27, £135 million in 2027-28 and £130 million to 2031-32. The policy costings note records that "the costing accounts for a behavioural response by gambling operators who may pass on some of the duty rise by lowering the Return to Player, leading to machine gambling demand falling and for some activity to shift towards remote gambling. An elasticity of -0.95 is used, with 25% of the reduction in stakes then assumed to substitute to Remote Gaming Duty." Remote Gaming Duty is charged at 40%.

The note concedes that "the main uncertainties in this costing relate to the behavioural response". Its tax base "is estimated using HMRC administrative data on Machine Games Duty registrations and returns and the Gambling Commission’s Industry Statistics".