Betfred says gambling tax rise in budget will force it to shut all its UK shops

Betfred has said it will close all 1,287 of its high street betting shops if Rachel Reeves raises taxes on the gambling industry in next month’s budget.

The company’s threat comes amid speculation that the chancellor is considering a tax increase worth up to £3.2bn on sports betting to help to close a potential £30bn shortfall in the public finances.

Betfred said such a tax increase would ultimately force all its shops to close, putting 7,500 jobs at risk.

Fred Done, the billionaire chair who co-founded Betfred with his brother in 1967, told the BBC: “If [the tax rate] went up to anywhere like 40%, or even 35%, there is no profit in the business. We would have to close it down. I’m talking job losses. We’re talking probably 7,500.”

Betfred’s chief executive, Joanne Whittaker, told the Sunday Times: “The most frightening element is we’re going to lose the whole retail business. I’m not scaremongering … I’m not being alarmist.”

The gambling industry has been ramping up its lobbying efforts amid intense speculation that Reeves could raise taxes on sports betting firms to 30%, from current levels of 15%, and on online slots from 20% to 50%.

The former prime minister Gordon Brown has pushed for the changes. The Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank, which has close links to Labour, estimates that such an increase could raise £3.2bn.

Brown argued that the extra revenue could be used to alleviate child poverty across the UK, and noted that – excluding the lottery – the £11.5bn betting and gaming industry only paid £2.5bn in tax last year. “As much as £3bn extra can be raised from taxing it properly,” he said.

Last week Betfred’s rival, William Hill, said it could close up to 200 betting shops, with up to 1,500 jobs potentially affected. Stella David, the chief executive of Entain, the FTSE 100 owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, has also said higher gambling taxes could lead to shop closures and investment being diverted to other countries.

Responding to a closure threat from Betfred’s bosses, a Treasury spokesperson said: “We do not comment on speculation around future changes to tax policy.”

The spokesperson added: “We are consulting on bringing online betting in line with other forms of online gambling to cut down bureaucracy. It is not about increasing or decreasing tax rates, and we welcome all views.”

In its latest earnings report, Betfred said it made £500,000 in operating profit on £900,000 in revenues, following a series of writedowns on its assets in 2023. The company has yet to release its earnings report for 2024, when it was fined £3.25m by the Gambling Commission for social responsibility and anti-money-laundering failures.