Rank Group Warns a Third of UK Casinos and Bingo Halls Could Close Over Machine Tax Rise

^{A Mecca Bingo venue in the UK. Rank Group, which owns Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos, has warned that higher machine taxes could force a third of its sites to shut. (Photo: Stephen Sweeney / Wikimedia Commons)}

Rank Says 2,000 Jobs at Risk if Machine Tax Doubles

Rank Group, the parent company of Mecca Bingo and Grosvenor Casinos, has warned that a third of its UK venues could be forced to close if the government doubles the tax on gaming machines at next month's Budget.

Chief executive Richard Harris told the Press Association that an increase in machine games duty (MGD) from 20% to 40% would make large parts of the company's estate "unviable". MGD is charged on the profits operators make from fruit machines, roulette terminals and other slot machines installed in casinos, bingo halls and arcades.

"We have a healthy business, but if it went to 40% about a third of our estate would have to close," Harris said. "Jobs would be at risk and it would have a big impact to local areas by hitting workers, but losing bingo halls would have a social impact, too."

Rank estimates that roughly 2,000 jobs, around 30% of its UK workforce, would be affected if the higher rate goes ahead.

Burnham's Tax Plan Fuels the Budget Debate

The warning follows renewed pressure from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who has backed calls for gambling firms to pay more tax to help fund welfare spending. The Social Market Foundation, a think tank, has said doubling MGD on higher-stake "Category B" machines could raise the government between £275 million and £458 million a year, and found in recent polling that 43% of the public would support such a move under a future Labour government.

Harris argued the industry is being treated as an easy revenue source without enough scrutiny of the consequences for jobs and high streets. Casino and bingo operators have already had to adapt to stricter responsible gambling rules on stake limits, affordability checks and advertising in recent years, and Rank says a sharp new tax rise would land on top of those added costs.

"We have a healthy business, but if it went to 40% about a third of our estate would have to close," Richard Harris told the Press Association.

No final decision on machine games duty has been announced. The Treasury is expected to confirm its Budget plans in the coming weeks, and the gambling sector's tax treatment is likely to remain a live issue until then, particularly as the link_text_goes_here continues to be debated at Westminster.

Land-based operators have already been squeezed by earlier tax changes this year, with some high-street chains link_text_goes_here to offset rising costs. Rank's Harris said further tax rises risk accelerating shop and venue closures rather than simply raising revenue.

Bingo and Retail Casinos Warn of Wider Fallout

Rank's Mecca Bingo brand is one of the UK's largest bingo operators, and the company has argued that bingo halls play a distinct social role in many towns, often serving as one of the few affordable, supervised social venues for older customers. Closures on the scale Harris has warned about would remove that option from communities that, in some cases, have already lost other high-street leisure options in recent years.

Trade bodies representing land-based casinos and bingo operators are expected to lobby the Treasury directly in the weeks before the Budget, arguing that machine games duty should be considered alongside the industry's other tax obligations rather than in isolation. The government has previously said any changes to gambling taxation will be assessed against its wider goals of balancing fiscal revenue with the health of the regulated licensed sector. Whether ministers accept that framing, or press ahead with a steeper increase along the lines the Social Market Foundation has costed, is likely to become clearer only once the Budget itself is delivered.

Source: Wales Online (Press Association interview)