High-street slot machines and casinos could face £460m tax rise under Burnham

Adult gaming centres have flooded UK high streets in recent years. Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy View image in fullscreen Adult gaming centres have flooded UK high streets in recent years. Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy High-street slot machines and casinos could face £460m tax rise under Burnham Thinktank finds 43% of the public would support a move by Labour to raise taxes on adult gaming centres All-night slot machine shops and casinos could face a £460m tax rise if Andy Burnham acts on his concerns about the gambling industry as prime minister, after an influential thinktank found the policy would have public support. Known by some in the gambling sector as “slot sheds”, adult gaming centres (AGCs) have flooded UK high streets in recent years, disproportionately targeting economically deprived areas . But while online casinos were hit with a tax increase in Rachel Reeves’s November budget, duty on the physical slot machines available in AGCs was left untouched. Burnham is widely tipped to oust Reeves as chancellor if he becomes prime minister. He has previously condemned reports of AGCs exploiting vulnerable people and called for tougher regulation to prevent their spread. He also backed a proposal by Gordon Brown last year to pay for an end to the two-child benefit cap by tapping the gambling industry for more tax. The Social Market Foundation (SMF) thinktank released polling on Monday showing that 43% of the public would support any move by a future Labour administration to raise taxes affecting AGCs, which offer a £2 slot machine spin every 2.5 seconds. The sector’s rapid growth has brought record takings for operators, according to official figures released last year by the Gambling Commission. Doubling machine games duty (MGD) from 20% to 40% could increase the tax take from “Category B” £2-a-spin slot machines by between £275m and £458m, on top of the £600m they currently pay, according to the SMF. The plan would hit casinos as well as the AGC sector’s largest companies, such as Austrian-owned Admiral and German-owned Merkur, which was fined last year after exploiting a gambling addict who was suffering from terminal cancer . Bookmakers would also be affected, a side-effect that is thought to have deterred Reeves from the move after concerns were raised by the horse racing industry, which derives hundreds of millions of pounds a year from a levy on betting shops’ profits. The SMF proposal would leave lower-stakes category C and D fruit machines in pubs untouched, in order to avoid cutting off a source of revenue for the beleaguered hospitality sector. Bacta, the trade body for AGCs and amusement arcades, said the SMF report was “fantasy economics and grossly irresponsible”. It predicted that the proposed increase would reduce the tax take and cost jobs. “A 40% rate would devastate high streets and seaside towns, close responsible family-run businesses and risk pushing customers away from safe, regulated environments towards the