Nearly 250 betting shops and eight casinos in Britain’s coastal communities could close under a mooted gambling tax increase, industry representatives warn, as the Chancellor faces pressure to raise revenue and unions demand a tougher tax regime for Britain’s biggest banks.
Britain’s struggling seaside towns face another potential blow as gambling industry representatives warn that a tax increase on gaming machines could force hundreds of betting shops to close, putting thousands of jobs and already fragile high streets at risk.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) claims that 244 betting shops and eight casinos in coastal communities could shut if the Chancellor increases machine games duty in the forthcoming Budget. The closures could cost 1,761 jobs, the industry body says.
There are currently 609 betting shops and 20 casinos in Britain’s coastal communities, making the proposed tax change a potential threat to a significant part of the sector’s local footprint.
The warning comes as the Treasury looks for ways to raise revenue and ease pressure from rising government borrowing costs. But gambling operators argue that increasing taxes on machines used for quizzes, slots and fruit games could undermine businesses that provide employment in towns where alternative opportunities may be limited.
For some customers, the consequences would extend beyond losing a place to gamble.
“Betting shops are much more than a place to have a bet,” Jack Pugh, a trainee manager at JenningsBet in Christchurch, Dorset, told The Sun.
He said regular customers often visited for conversation, coffee and football banter, describing relationships between staff and customers as a central part of the shops’ role in their communities.
Grainne Hurst, chief executive of the BGC, said betting shops, bingo clubs and casinos provided jobs and investment in seaside towns, where employment opportunities could be scarce.
The industry’s warnings, however, arrive amid a wider debate over who should bear the burden of repairing the public finances.
One option reportedly under consideration is reversing former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s cut to the bank profits surcharge, from 8 per cent to 3 per cent. The Trades Union Congress has backed a reversal, arguing that major banks can afford to contribute more after a period of strong profits.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said Britain’s four largest banks were making £1bn a week, while bonuses had reached a post-financial-crisis high. The union has called for the surcharge to rise to 16 per cent, estimating that such a move could generate £24bn over four years. It also calculates that reversing the earlier tax cut could raise £2.25bn annually.
The competing proposals expose the political calculation facing the Chancellor: how to raise money without inflicting disproportionate damage on businesses and communities already under pressure.
For coastal towns, the immediate concern is that a tax decision made in Westminster could leave more vacant shopfronts, fewer jobs and diminished local spending. The scale of any closures remains a warning from industry representatives, rather than a confirmed outcome.
But with the Budget approaching, betting operators are making their case that the cost of raising additional revenue could be felt far beyond the gambling industry itself.
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