Will the Budget Hit Betting Shops? Ladbrokes Owner Plans 400 Customer-Care Job Cuts

Entain, the owner of Ladbrokes and Coral, announced plans on September 16, 2026, to cut about 400 customer-care roles. At the same time, Britain’s betting industry is lobbying hard against a possible rise in Machine Games Duty, the tax on gaming-machine profits, before the government’s October 28 Budget.

Tax links the two developments, but they are separate. Entain’s cuts follow tax rises already in force. The machine tax increase has not been confirmed.

Who would lose their jobs

The planned cuts cover about 20% of Entain’s 2,000 customer-care roles. The company said they were part of efforts to address the impact of increased gambling taxes, Reuters reported.

September reports described the cuts as proposals subject to consultation, including in The Guardian.

The roles are not all in Britain. They are spread across 11 locations around the world, and fewer than half are believed to be in the UK, according to a report published on AOL. The same report said sources acknowledged reasons beyond tax, including cost savings after past takeovers, greater use of AI and changing customer habits.

A warning sent to Downing Street

Entain also made public a letter, dated September 11, from CEO Stella David to Prime Minister Andy Burnham. She urged him to consider how a substantial increase in Machine Games Duty would affect thousands of betting-shop workers and communities across Britain, Reuters reported.

“A further doubling of Machine Games Duty would therefore add another significant cost to businesses already struggling to absorb major tax increases, stacking the odds against labour-intensive high-street operators,” she wrote.

David said Entain employs more than 13,000 people in the UK, more than 12,000 of them in around 2,300 betting shops. By her estimate, doubling the standard rate to 40% would add about £100 million a year to the cost of running its UK retail business, the AOL report said.

The tax rises already in place

Gambling firms are already paying more on their online business. Here is where the main rates stand, according to HMRC and the government’s response on remote gambling:

• Machine Games Duty, charged on net takings: 5% on low-stake machines (a maximum cost of play of 20p and a maximum cash prize no greater than £10), 20% on most other machines where play costs no more than £5, and 25% where play can cost more than £5.
• Remote Gaming Duty, on online casino games and slots: raised from 21% to 40% in April 2026.
• Remote betting: a new 25% rate under General Betting Duty from April 1, 2027. Remote bets on UK horseracing will stay at 15%.

Former Chancellor Rachel Reeves set the online increases in November 2025, according to Reuters. The machine rates have not changed.

The industry’s jobs warning

On September 28, the Betting and Gaming Council, the industry’s trade body, launched a campaign called Back Our Betting Shops. It said EY modelling suggests that raising Machine Games Duty to 40% “could put up to 16,000 jobs, nearly 1,500 betting shops and as many as 34 casinos at risk,” while leaving the Treasury £124 million worse off.

Those are industry-cited projections, not announced closures. The BGC attributed its forecasts to EY modelling.

David’s letter cited 1,470 potential betting-shop closures and 15,900 job losses, AOL’s report said, while the BGC’s later announcement used rounded figures. Entain’s planned customer-care cuts are a separate issue from these forecasts.

Worries about gambling jobs are not limited to Britain. In Washington state, closure notices for eight Maverick casinos list 850 workers.

The case for a higher machine tax

In a report published on June 30, the Social Market Foundation, a think tank, called for a higher band of Machine Games Duty for Category B machines, the higher-stakes machines found in places such as betting shops and adult gaming centers.

The SMF estimated that doubling the duty on those machines to 40% could raise £275 million to £458 million a year. The higher figure assumes people keep gambling as before, and the lower one assumes some drop in play, iGaming Business reported.

The think tank cited Gambling Commission data on high rates of problem gambling among machine players, and argued that taxpayers carry much of the cost of that harm.

The BGC rejected the report. “We fundamentally oppose any increase in Machine Games Duty, and nothing in this report justifies such a damaging policy,” a BGC spokesperson said, according to iGaming Business.

Machine-tax decision remains unconfirmed

The government has not announced a machine tax rise. Yogonet reported on September 9, citing The Times, that Chancellor John Healey was considering an increase.

The Treasury would not be drawn on the reports. “As has always been the case, the Chancellor will set out decisions at fiscal events, rather than routinely commenting on rumour, speculation or proposals,” a spokesperson told The Times.

Until a decision comes, the industry’s job warnings and the think tank’s revenue estimates remain competing forecasts.

Featured image: A Ladbrokes betting shop in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, in November 2025. Photo: Mtaylor848 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)