SIMON THOMAS
That requires long-term decisions about buildings, hospitality, technology, entertainment and employment. It requires capital, but just as importantly it requires confidence. There would be a peculiar irony in Government finally reforming the casino regime to encourage investment and modernisation, only then to change the tax economics before that investment has had a chance to materialise. Nor can MGD sensibly be considered in isolation. Land-based casinos already operate within a substantial tax and regulatory framework, including Gaming Duty on table gaming, MGD, the statutory gambling levy and the employment, property and business costs associated with running significant physical venues.
The sensible Treasury question therefore isn’t simply: “Online gaming is taxed at 40 per cent, so why aren’t casino machines?” It is: what is the cumulative effect of taxation and regulation on investment, employment and the long-term viability of Britain’s land-based casino sector? If higher taxation is intended, even partly, to engineer a different gambling market by making particular activities or premises uneconomic, we should be much more cautious. Tax is an indiscriminate regulator. Proponents have argued that an increase in MGD is required to address the proliferation of Adult Gaming Centres on our high streets. Leaving aside the question of whether proliferation has taken place (there are far fewer licensed gambling venues in Britain than there were a decade ago), this
argument ignores the fact that an increase in MGD will result in the closure of large numbers of bingo clubs and casinos as well. Both sectors provide important social and community benefits, which have been reflected in changes to gambling taxes and gambling law in the last 12 months.
There is a more intelligent approach. Start at the other end of the argument: what does Government actually want the British gambling market to look like in ten or twenty years? Which products should be available, in what environments and under what conditions? What distinctions should exist between destination entertainment venues and transactional gambling premises? What role should bingo clubs, casinos and other forms of land-based leisure play in our town and city centres? For casinos specifically, Government has already begun answering those questions. The recent reforms provide an opportunity to develop the next generation of British casinos as modern, sustainable, experience-led venues contributing to employment, tourism, nightlife and thriving city centres. Having created those conditions, Government should give the reforms time to work.
The Gambling Act is now more than twenty years old. The market, technology, consumer behaviour and our high streets have all changed enormously. There is nothing unreasonable about Parliament asking whether legislation written in a different era is still producing the outcomes we want today.
But if Government is minded to change the legislation, let’s use the opportunity intelligently. Identify the problems precisely rather than legislate against an entire industry because some parts of it have become politically unpopular. Make existing provisions work where they remain appropriate and change them where they don’t.
There is also a consequence of getting this wrong which should concern Government as much as operators. Demand doesn’t necessarily disappear because regulated supply becomes uneconomic. Push legitimate operators too far and you risk making the regulated market less attractive while increasing the opportunity for the unregulated one.
A healthy gambling industry isn’t created by taxing activity until it disappears, or by writing legislation so broadly that good businesses become collateral damage in an attempt to deal with bad ones. It comes from deciding what kind of market we want, regulating precisely to achieve it, enforcing those rules properly and allowing responsible businesses operating within them to succeed.
Regulation should regulate. Taxation should tax.
ASK SIMON!
If you’d like Simon to answer your question, email Matt now:
casinointernationalmatt@gmail.com
SEPTEMBER 2026 15
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