APCW
Fighting for trust, honesty and integrity
in the online gaming industry!
Sign Up For Perspectives Weekly Videos



Join us on:
Facebook  LinkedIn  Twitter  YouTube

Entain blasts UK’s new gambling tax hikes

3 December 2025
(PRESS RELEASE) -- Entain plc, the global sports betting and gaming group, acknowledges the UK Government's Budget statement and is disappointed by the increases to U.K. gambling taxes.

Aligned with the Betting & Gaming Council, Entain strongly believes that maintaining well-balanced regulatory frameworks alongside proportionate tax regimes are critical to protecting customers and supporting the sector.

Today's announced tax changes fail to deliver this balance and will see regulated operators limited to providing a less attractive and lower quality customer offering compared to the unlicensed and untaxed black market.

These disproportionate tax increases will have a detrimental impact on the economic contribution of the gambling industry, put jobs at risk, reduce funding for sports, and benefit the black market.

As a result of today's announced changes to U.K. rates of Remote Gaming Duty1 and General Betting Duty2,3, Entain estimates an annualized additional cost to our UK&I Online business of approximately £200m4, before any mitigations.

Given the quantum of the tax increases, Entain expects to mitigate approximately 25% of this impact through actions including reducing marketing and promotions, commencing immediately alongside the implementation of the tax changes. Therefore, consistent with the dates of proposed implementation, this equates to an EBITDA impact4 of approximately £100m in 2026 (8% of consensus FY26 EBITDA5) and approximately £150m from 2027. In addition, as a high-quality scale operator, Entain anticipates benefiting from capturing market share as others are now forced to exit the U.K. market.

As the business works hard to digest and mitigate these additional taxes, we remain focused on delivering our strategic priorities. Entain's globally scaled and geographically diverse portfolio of leading positions in attractive markets, sees the Group well positioned to absorb such regulatory and tax changes whilst continuing to deliver sustainable growth.

Stella David, CEO of Entain, commented:
"We are deeply disappointed by today's decision to punitively increase UK gambling taxes, putting at risk an industry which already contributes £7 billion annually to the UK economy and supports over 100,000 jobs across the country.

Disproportionately increasing gambling taxes will not only have a detrimental impact on our industry but also heightens the risk for customers. As seen in other countries, punitive tax increases often lead to lower tax revenues overall, whilst also driving players to illegal, unregulated operators with no player protections. The Government must now urgently tackle the black market and the consequences of today's decision.

Entain remains well positioned to deliver sustainable growth, underpinned by the Group's diverse geographic footprint and strong portfolio of leading positions in attractive markets."

Entain blasts UK’s new gambling tax hikes is republished from iGamingNews.com.


Copyright © 2026 APCW   All rights reserved. Terms of Use    Privacy Policy