BGC calls MPs' push for 40% Machine Games Duty 'deeply misguided', citing EY shop closure modelling

The Betting and Gaming Council has criticised a group of Labour MPs who want Machine Games Duty on Category B gaming machines raised to 40%, describing their position as "deeply misguided". Chief executive Grainne Hurst responded after Labour MP Alex Ballinger said 90 of his colleagues had signed a letter calling for the increase.

The letter comes amid rumours that Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey is considering a doubling of MGD in the Autumn Budget. Such a move would be a further setback for the UK gambling sector, which is already absorbing earlier tax changes.

Hurst said MPs are right to be concerned about protecting communities and high streets, but argued that higher taxes on betting shops and casinos would not achieve that aim. On LinkedIn she said the threat is real, noting that more than 600 betting shops have closed or announced closure since increases to Remote Gaming Duty and General Betting Duty were announced in last year's Autumn Budget.

She again cited modelling by Ernst & Young. According to the BGC, a rise in MGD to 40% could close a further 1,500 shops and 34 casinos, cost up to 16,000 jobs and leave the Treasury as much as £124m worse off. Hurst urged the MPs backing the letter to weigh the consequences for the communities they want to protect, adding that every closure means fewer jobs and another empty shopfront. "We should be backing British jobs and businesses, not taxing them out of existence," she said.

Bacta, the trade body for the amusements and low-stake, low-prize gambling entertainment sector, also lobbied on Friday. It welcomed VisitEngland's national campaign encouraging holidaymakers to visit the coast and used the occasion to warn against an MGD increase. Allaster Gair, Bacta's Director of Communications, said the government must avoid the self-harm an increase would cause and instead support the tourism industry, which he said sustains more than two million jobs and generates £127 billion annually for the economy.

The two interventions add to a coordinated industry campaign that has included warnings from several major operators about job losses and shop closures. Whether it will succeed is unclear, as Prime Minister Andy Burnham has already expressed his dislike of high street betting shops. With the Autumn Budget nine days away, the industry is working to make its case resonate with the public.