Bingo Duty
Find out if you should pay Bingo Duty on profits from games played in the UK, how to calculate your Bingo Duty, send returns and how to pay.
Bingo Duty has been abolished from 1 April 2026. You do not need to register or submit returns for any periods that start on or after this date.
If you’re liable for Bingo Duty for any period starting before 1 April 2026, you still need to submit returns and pay HMRC for those periods.
Bingo Duty is paid on the profits you made from organising and promoting bingo games played in the UK, except:
- bingo you played in your home
- bingo on a machine that is covered by Machine Games Duty
- non-profit making bingo, where you did not charge a player a fee to take part
- bingo you played at certain amusement arcades and travelling fairs, if the stakes and prizes were below specific limits
Small-scale bingo is also exempt from Bingo Duty if it was promoted by a club, organisation or other association of people that did not have a bingo operating licence, provided either of the following apply:
- only members of a club or organisation or their guests could play
- winnings or stakes did not exceed £500 on any one day, or £7,500 within any period of 4 or 5 weeks, ending on the last Sunday of each calendar month
If you offer bingo remotely (for example, over the internet) you’ll still be liable for Remote Gaming Duty and will also need to pay Remote Gaming Duty on bingo offered to UK customers.
Find out more about the exemptions from Bingo Duty on Excise Notice 457.
Register
Bingo Duty has been abolished from 1 April 2026. You do not need to register for any periods which began on or after this date.
If you should have been registered for any period before 1 April 2026, you must contact HMRC to find out how to:
- submit outstanding returns
- pay HMRC what you owe
Calculating Bingo Duty
You do not need to calculate Bingo Duty on or after 1 April 2026, as it has been abolished from this date.
If your accounting period began before 1 April 2026 and ended on or after this date, you only need to calculate Bingo Duty for the days up to and including 31 March 2026.
Find out more about accounting periods on Excise Notice 457.
The duty rate is 10% of your profits in your accounting period. Your profits are your bingo receipts less any winnings you paid out.
Your bingo receipts include all the payments you got from players to allow them to play bingo, for example:
- bingo cards
- participation fees
- stakes from Main Stage Bingo, Combined and Prize Bingo
You do not need to include things like:
- admission fees
- bingo club membership fees
- catering income
Your bingo winnings are:
- cash prizes
- the value of prizes that are not cash
- if the prize is a voucher, the value of the prize that the voucher can be exchanged for
Find out more about bingo winnings and vouchers on Excise Notice 457.
If your winnings were more than your receipts, you will not pay any Bingo Duty. You can use any losses on your return to reduce the amount of Bingo Duty you need to pay in the next accounting period.
Returns and payments
Bingo Duty has been abolished from 1 April 2026. You do not need to submit returns for any periods that start on or after this date.
From 1 April 2026, you can:
- submit any outstanding returns for periods starting before 1 April 2026
- let us know if you have any over-declarations or under-declarations from previous accounting periods
You need to submit any outstanding Bingo Duty returns and pay the duty as soon as possible. This is because the filing and payment deadlines for all accounting periods has now passed.
You can submit your Bingo Duty Return online. You have until 31 March 2027 to submit any outstanding returns. The service will close after this date.
If you do not owe any Bingo Duty you must submit a nil return for that accounting period.
If you were usually closed for a specific time, for example, over the winter months, you should tell HMRC about the dates you were closed. You do not need to complete or submit returns for the months you were closed.
Penalties and appeals
You could be charged a penalty if you do not comply with any of your obligations, such as if:
- you do not pay any Bingo Duty you owe
- your return or other tax document is not accurate and as a result you do not pay enough duty
- you do not tell HMRC if a duty assessment sent to you is too low
- you do not notify HMRC about any changes to your business at the right time
Find out more about penalties you may have to pay HMRC.
If you’ve been given a penalty and you think it’s wrong, you can appeal to HMRC.
Record keeping
If you paid Bingo Duty, you must keep the accounts and records necessary to:
- work out the bingo promotion profits
- allow HMRC to check the duty due
You must keep all your records for at least 3 years.
Find out more about record keeping on Excise Notice 457.
VAT
Providing facilities for playing games of chance such as bingo is normally exempt from VAT, but there are some exceptions.
Find out more about VAT and Bingo Duty in Notice 701/29 betting, gaming and lotteries.
Updates to this page
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Bingo Duty has been abolished from 1 April 2026. This guidance has been updated in the section 'Calculating Bingo Duty' to explain how to calculate Bingo Duty for your final accounting period. The section 'Returns and payments' has also been updated as the online service to file your returns is closing on 31 March 2027.
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Bingo Duty has been abolished from 1 April 2026. This guidance has been updated in section 'Register' by removing how to register and adding that if you should have been registered you must contact HMRC, in section 'Returns and payments' by adding that you'll have up to and including 31 March 2027 to submit outstanding returns online. Section 'Changes to your details' has been removed because you will not need to tell HMRC about changes to your details.
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First published.