National statistics

UK Betting and Gaming Statistics background and references

Updated 31 October 2023

1. Betting and Gaming background

The accounting for gambling duty is mainly for activities within the United Kingdom (UK), and consists of three main activities which are betting, gaming and lottery, and is administered via seven gambling regimes, which are: General Betting Duty (GBD), Pool Betting Duty (PBD), Gaming Duty, Bingo Duty, Remote Gaming Duty (RGD), Machine Games Duty (MGD), and Lottery Duty.

The UK Betting and Gaming (B&G) Statistics publication provides duty receipts information from each of the seven regimes, alongside returns data for MGD.

There are two-ways that gambling duties are currently charged:

1. Those levied on ‘gross profits’ from gambling (stakes less winnings paid out, also known as Gross Gaming Yield), including MGD, RGD, GBD, PBD, Bingo Duty and Gaming Duty.
2. A levy on the amount charged to gamble (stakes), for Lottery Duty.

Prior to the introduction of MGD in February 2013, there was also a duty on a licence to operate a machine, known as Amusement Machine Licence Duty (AMLD).

‘Stakes’ within the publication refers to the amount of money gambled within a regime.

Go to ‘Gambling duties’ for an index for all gambling duties administered by HMRC.

2. Gambling duties by type

Betting duties

General Betting Duty (GBD) is a duty charged on bets made with a UK-based bookmaker, other than on-course betting. These bets are ‘fixed odds’ bets, which means that when a bet is placed, the punter knows how much they will win if successful. General Betting Duty has been charged on money received for bets, less money paid out for winnings (‘gross profits’) since the regime was reformed in April 2002.

Go to ‘Excise Notice 451a’ for additional regime information.

Pool Betting Duty (PBD) is where the winners have a share in the pool of stake money placed on a particular event. They do not know the amount of their winnings until after the event when the size of the pool is known. Like GBD, PBD is charged on money received for bets, less money paid out for winnings (‘gross profits’).

Go to ‘Excise Notice 147a’ for additional regime information.

Gaming duties

Gaming Duty is charged on any premises where ‘dutiable gaming’ takes place (casinos). Dutiable gaming applies to certain games such as: Baccarat, Blackjack, Poker, Craps, French Roulette, Wheel of Fortune etc. The amount of duty payable is based on the money gambled, minus any winnings paid out (‘gross profits’).

Gaming Duty follows six-monthly accounting, with accounting periods normally beginning on the 1 April and 1 October, but other staggers can be used. From October 2019, taxpayers’ make 1 payment per accounting period. Before October 2019, taxpayers’ were required to make payment on account part-way through an accounting period, then a balancing payment after the end of the accounting period.

Go to ‘Excise Notice 453’ for additional regime information.

Bingo Duty is paid by the promoters’ of bingo in the UK on the amount of bingo receipts less the amount of winnings paid out (‘gross profits’). Bingo Duty was subject to reform in 2003, when the previous duty was rationalised and brought into line with some of the other gambling duties. All bingo in the UK is liable to pay duty. However, certain varieties are exempt, such as domestic bingo within a private residence, small-scale bingo, not-for-profit bingo and machine bingo.

Go to ‘Excise Notice 457’ for additional regime information.

Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) refers to the playing of a game-of-chance for a prize by remote communication, such as the internet, telephone or television. Duty is paid by the provider of the remote service and is calculated on the amount of money receivable, minus any paid out winnings (‘gross profits’). RGD was introduced in 2007.

For reasons of taxpayer confidentiality, prior to April 2015, the then nominal amount of RGD receipts were included within the Gaming Duty figures. Following Gambling Tax Reform (GTR) introduced by HMRC on the 1 December 2014, RGD receipts have been recorded separately since April 2015.

Go to ‘Excise Notice 455a’ for additional regime information.

Machine Games Duty (MGD) replaced AMLD and VAT charged on the income from gaming machines from the 1 February 2013. MGD is charged on the playing of dutiable machine games where customers pay to play the games in the hope they will win a cash prize that’s more than the cost to play the machine. MGD is not payable on machine games that only offer non-cash prizes or only cash prizes that are less than the cost to play.

Go to ‘Excise Notice 452’ for additional regime information.

Lottery duties

Lottery Duty was introduced in November 1994, and applies to duty from the National Lottery only. It is a duty on the taking of a chance or ticket in a lottery that is promoted in the UK, unless specifically exempt. However, all lotteries, except the National Lottery, are exempt from the duty. The duty applies to lottery tickets and scratchcards. The duty payable is based on the stake money received from ticket sales.

Lottery exemptions relate to lotteries promoted in the course of an exempt entertainment, such as a bazaar, a fete, sports & athletic events, dinners, and private lotteries where the ticket sales are confined to members of a society or people who all work with the same premises, such as office sweepstakes and office party raffles. Lotteries promoted by charities are also exempt.

The National Lottery Community Fund awards money raised by National Lottery players to communities across the UK.

The National Lottery Community Fund is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).

Go to ‘Excise Notice 458’ for additional regime information.

Former duties

Amusement Machine License Duty (AMLD) was a duty levied on all amusement machines provided for play within UK premises, such as licenced fruit machines within pubs. There are a few exceptions, such as quiz and video machines, pinball tables, snooker tables and gaming machines with stakes or pay-outs below certain limits. The licence covers the premises. The cost depends on the number of machines provided in the premises. There are special licences for individual machines with small pay-outs, but these are issued only under specific conditions.

From December 2005, Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in shops were reclassified as amusement machines and ceased to be liable for General Betting Duty. From August 2006 these became liable for AMLD. AMLD and duty receipts were recorded under that category. From April 2015, the minimal receipts from AMLD have been included within the MGD figures.

3. Methodology and sources

These statistics cover the United Kingdom. It is not possible to provide any regional breakdown on where tax liability arose for Gambling duties as HMRC does not collect this data on the tax return.

The Greenock Accounting Centre (GAC) will send gambling returns to traders normally issued around two weeks before the end of the accounting period and traders should send payment of duty together with completed return to GAC, no later than 15-days following the end of the accounting period. Once GAC receives the returns, they are entered into the accounting systems at this location. Betting returns are rendered monthly on day 15 of the month for standard period returns and non-standard periods are pre-arranged with trader’s local Excise Office. The non-standard period may affect the pattern of data collection.

Duty receipts data for all seven gambling regimes is derived from two data sources: the Customs & Excise Core Accounting System (CECAS) and HMRC’s internal accounting system. The data within both sources, as well as the MGD liabilities data analysed in the ‘Table_2_(MGD)’ tab of the accompanying UK Betting and Gaming tables, is sourced from information provided to HMRC on trader returns. Links to examples of trader returns can be found in the Betting and Gaming return forms section of this page.

Total betting duty receipts are calculated by summing GBD and PBD; total gaming duty is calculated by summing Gaming Duty, Bingo Duty, RGD and MGD, and total lottery duties only consists of one tax regime.

Gambling Tax Reform (GTR) was introduced 1 December 2014. GTR reformed the taxation of GBD, PBD, and RGD from ‘place of supply’ to ‘place of consumption’. There were also changes to the accounting periods for GBD and PBD which moved from monthly to quarterly. The first accounting period for GTR was 1 December 2014 to 31 March 2015, with first receipts received from April 2015.

These combined effects led to large differences in trends in receipts when comparing with previous years. The impact of which is particularly prominent within receipt figures in 2015. Go to ‘General Betting Duty, Pool Betting Duty and Remote Gaming Duty’ for further information on GTR duties.

Apart from Lottery Duty and Bingo Duty, where payment is due within 15-days, payments for B&G duties are due to HMRC in the month following the end of the relevant accounting period. Therefore, there’s up to a one-month lag between the end of the accounting period and duty payment. Since October 2019, Gaming Duty has followed a single payment structure.

The length of accounting periods also differ according to the duty. Bingo Duty and Lottery Duty both follow monthly accounting, meaning that an accounting period can be four or five weeks, depending upon the month. Following GTR, GBD, PBD, RGD follow quarterly accounting, with trader accounting periods being set up on one of three ‘staggers’. MGD has followed the GTR accounting period format since its introduction. Gaming Duty follows six-monthly accounting, with accounting periods normally beginning on the 1 April and 1 October, but other staggers can be used.

Monthly receipts can be affected by various factors often leading to one-off peaks or troughs in time series data. Peaks can result from, for example, large traders making substantial one-off payments following HMRC Officer Assessments; a significant event attractive to gamblers like sporting tournaments, or, (for Lottery Duty) National Lottery rollovers which attract more players.

4. Statistical quality

Go to ‘Statistics at HMRC’ for further information on the departments National and Official Statistics.

These statistics are based on administrative data sources, which undergo a thorough internal quality-assurance procedure prior to publication.

Furthermore, the “Total Tax Received” statistics are aligned with HMRC’s Trust Statement, which is audited by the National Audit Office (NAO). Go to ‘HMRC annual reports and accounts’ for further information.

Related Statistics

Go to ‘National statistics for cash receipts’ for all HMRC administered taxes published at GOV.UK.

Total Betting & Gaming receipts monthly are available on the Office for National Statistics website back to January 1970 (time series identifier: ACDJ).

HMRC does not publish a Tax Gap^{[footnote 1]} for Betting and Gaming. Official statistics on Tax Gaps are published at ‘Measuring Tax Gaps’ on GOV.UK.

The estimated costs of tax expenditures and structural reliefs, and the illustrative effects of tax changes are published at ‘Tax expenditures and ready reckoners’ on GOV.UK.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Treasury publish ‘Public Sector Finances’, which covers tax receipts from all taxes (This does not separate out B&G receipts).

Betting and Gaming receipts are forecast by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and published on the OBR website.

5. Related Information

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT)

For MGD purposes, machines that aren’t Type 1 or Type 2, are categorised as ‘all other’ if the cost to play is more than £5. Most machines in the ‘all other’ category were so-called FOBTs (B2 machines as per the Gambling Commission categorisation), which had a maximum cost to play of £100. However, from April 2019 the maximum stake for FOBTs was reduced to £2, meaning they no longer fall into the ‘all other’ category. Go to the press release on this change for further information.

Go to ‘Fixed odds betting terminals’ at the House of Commons Library for a report on FOBTs.

Gambling Commission

The Gambling Commission was set up under the Gambling Act 2005 to regulate commercial gambling in Great Britain in partnership with licensing authorities.

6. Rounding policy

All figures in this bulletin are rounded to the nearest thousand pounds.

Any inconsistency between the totals and their constituent parts, or any inconsistency between the text and tables, is due to the totals and commentary being calculated using unrounded data.

7. Betting and Gaming receipts background

This section can be read alongside the ‘Table_1_(receipts)’ tab within the most recent UK Betting and Gaming tables. Negative receipts may occur when claims for repayments exceed receipts.

‘Total’ values may differ from the sum of component entries due to rounding, or may not reflect the whole period accurately due to changes in data reporting.

Data in 1986 is only available from April. The calendar year totals for 1986 therefore only represent part of the year and are not directly comparable with other years.

Lottery Duty was introduced in November 1994. All lawful lotteries are exempt from the duty except the National Lottery. As Lottery Duty operates alongside a monthly accounting period, HMRC began reporting receipts within this statistical release from December 1994.

The change in trend for General Betting Duty (GBD) receipts in November and December 2001 corresponds to the change in how the regime was structured at this time.

Increased Bingo Duty in March 2009 is due to payment of HMRC Officer Assessments (EX601) issued 19 November 2008 and 21 February 2008 for £5.8 million and £1.9 million respectively.

Increased Bingo Duty in May 2010 is due to payment of a HMRC Officer Assessment (EX601) issued 5 May 2010 for £13.9 million.

Decreased Pool Betting Duty (PBD) is due to a number of traders deregistering, combined with a small number of received trader’ returns.

Increased PBD receipts in August 2010 is due to an increase in the number of registered traders.

Increased PBD receipts in October 2010 is due to a large return which was backdated over a number of months.

Low Gaming Duty receipts in April 2011, and subsequently high receipts in May 2011, were due to a proportion of the duty that is historically received in April being received in May.

Gambling Tax Reform (GTR) was introduced 1 December 2014. GTR reformed taxation of GBD, PBD, and Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) from ‘place of supply’ to ‘place of consumption’. There were also changes to the accounting periods for GBD and PBD which moved from monthly to quarterly. The first accounting period for GTR was December 2014 to March 2015, with first receipts received from April 2015. These combined effects led to differences in trends for receipts, and are therefore not directly comparable to previous years.

From April 2015, the small amount of revenue received from Amusement Machine Licence Duty (AMLD) has been reported within total Machine Games Duty (MGD) receipts.

Following GTR reforms, from April 2015 RGD receipts have been reported separately. RGD was introduced in 2007, but for reasons of taxpayer confidentiality, prior to April 2015, the then nominal amount of RGD receipts were included within total Gaming Duty receipts figures.

As announced in May 2018, and introduced in Budget 2018, the rate of RGD increased from 15% to 21% from April 2019.

As announced in May 2018, and following consultation by the DCMS, the maximum stake on a single bet for Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBT) was reduced from £100 to £2. This policy change is expected to impact MGD, as most FOBTs were classified by HMRC as ‘all other’ machines for tax purposes and therefore liable for the higher 25% rate of MGD.

Increased Bingo Duty in December 2019 was due to HMRC accounting rather than changes to taxpayer’ behaviour.

8. Machine Games Duty receipts and liabilities background

This section can be read alongside the ‘Table_2_(MGD) ’ tab within UK Betting and Gaming tables.

Negative receipts may occur when claims for repayments exceed receipts.

Machine Games Duty (MGD) follows a quarterly accounting period, with trader accounting periods being set up on one of 3 ‘staggers’.

From 1 February 2013, MGD replaced Amusement Machine Licence Duty (AMLD) and VAT currently charged on the income from gaming machines.

For MGD purposes, machines that aren’t Type 1 or Type 2, are categorised as ‘all other’ if the cost to play is more than £5. A higher rate of 25% was applied to ‘all other’ machines from the 1 March 2015.

From April 2015, the minimal receipts from AMLD have been included within MGD receipts figures.

Following the introduction of MGD in February 2013, HMRC began reporting MGD receipts from April 2013. The calendar year totals for 2013 therefore only represent part of the year and are not directly comparable with other years.

As announced in May 2018, and following consultation by the DCMS, the maximum stake on a single bet for FOBTs was reduced from £100 to £2. This policy change is expected to impact MGD, as most FOBTs were classified by HMRC as ‘all other’ machines for tax purposes and therefore liable for the higher 25% rate of MGD.

MGD is payable to HMRC in the month following the end of the relevant accounting period. Therefore, there’s a one month lag between the end of the accounting period and cash being received. For this reason, the latest available complete data for ‘MGD duty at higher rate’, ‘MGD duty at standard rate’, ‘MGD duty at lower rate’ and ‘Total MGD liabilities’ is one month behind that of ‘Total MGD receipts’. This also means that figures for the latest financial year represent part year totals and therefore not directly comparable with other years.

9. Betting and Gaming return forms

Go to ‘File your gambling tax return’ to file returns for General Betting Duty, Pool Betting Duty or Remote Gaming Duty.

For Bingo Duty and Lottery Duty returns, go to ‘Send your Bingo Duty return online’ or ‘Send your Lottery Duty return online’, respectively.

10. Contacts

The Betting and Gaming Bulletin is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the ‘Excise duties, VAT and other tax statistics’ collection.

For statistical enquiries, contact:

revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk

HMRC
Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence (KAI)
Floor 2 Annex
Albert Bridge House
Manchester
M60 9AF

For media enquiries see HMRC press office.

For taxpayers with excise enquiries see the Excise Helpline.

11. Publication calendar

The UK Betting & Gaming Statistics publication is released twice yearly, in April and October. It is released on the last working day of the month, but is brought forward whenever the day preceding the last working day is a non-working day, resulting in publication never occurring on a Monday.

The release from the 30 April 2019 was the first instalment to be published in full. Future releases will also be in this GOV.UK format. However, previous releases from April 2008 to October 2018 can still be acquired at the archived UK Trade Info website, accessed via the National Archives.

The full publication calendar can be found at the publication hub for UK National Statistics.

12. Revisions policy

Any months with revisions are indicated as such in the year or month column, and where appropriate are explained above the table, in either sheet of the accompanying UK Betting and Gaming tables.

The latest three months of data are provisional. Revisions are only marked when non-provisional figures are changed. These statistics are based on banking data, which is subject to some accounting adjustment, and data from returns, where late adjustments on returns can lead to minor revisions during the first few months after publication.

“Total”, in relation to receipts, is aligned with HMRC’s audited Trust Statement. This may lead to a minor adjustment to the March figure to ensure the financial year total matches HMRC’s Trust Statement. Until the publication is aligned with HMRC’s Trust Statement, the March figure will be marked as provisional.

For the September 2020 publication, higher rate Machine Games Duty liabilities for March 2017 and March 2019 were revised. This was due to the delayed processing of trader returns relating to these periods since the previous (April 2020) Betting and Gaming bulletin was published.

13. National Statistics publication for indirect tax

User Engagement

We are committed to improving the Official Statistics we publish. As such, we encourage and promote user engagement.

Furthermore, we welcome any views you wish to communicate via our feedback avenues. We will undertake to review user comments on a quarterly basis, and use this information to develop our official statistics. We will summarise and publish user comments at regular intervals.

As part of this user engagement, we held a consultation from 20 November 2015 to 5 February 2016. The results of this consultation were published.

UK Betting and Gaming Statistics were not up for consultation in the 2021 survey and as a result saw no changes.

If you have specific questions on the statistics in this publication please contact the Receipts Monitoring Team directly. For further information and questions about tax rules please refer to the HMRC website.

Code of Practice for Official Statistics

HMRC complies with the regulations and principles within the United Kingdom Statistics Authority (UKSA) Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Pre-release access

The National Statistics publications for indirect taxes have no pre-release access in final form. As these statistics are compiled from administrative sources, the underlying data may be used internally for operational/managerial purposes, or for decision making prior to publication.

The headline cash receipts statistics are published in “HMRC Tax and NICs (National Insurance contributions) Receipts”, which has a pre-release access list published on HMRC’s website.

A National Statistics Publication

UKSA has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Designation as National Statistics can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

• meet identified user needs;
• are well explained and readily accessible;
• are produced according to sound methods,
• and are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest.

Once statistics are designated as National Statistics, it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.

National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs, and are produced free from any political interference.

For a full breakdown of UKSA’s Code of Practice for Statistics, go to ‘Code of Practice’.

For general statistical enquiries, contact the Office for National Statistics (ONS) at:

Telephone: +44 (0)845 601 3034
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Email: info@ons.gov.uk
Fax: +44 (0)01633 652747

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1. Tax gaps are the difference between tax collected and that, which in HMRC’s view, should be collected. ↩