Fred Done Predicts No UK Betting Shops Left by 2030 Under Looming Tax Increases
Betfred founder Fred Done has warned that a potential doubling of MGD from 20% to 40% could force Betfred to close 495 of 1,094 shops within a year, resulting in the loss of 2,575 jobs and around £67 million in foregone tax revenue. Done predicted that betting shops could disappear entirely by 2030.
SCCG Take — Further tax rises risk hastening retail exit and black-market growth while eroding high-street jobs. Policymakers must balance revenue goals against measurable harm to regulated operators and communities.
Betfred founder Fred Done has warned that planned gambling tax rises could eliminate all betting shops from the UK high street by 2030. The 83-year-old told the Financial Times that a proposed doubling of Machine Gaming Duty from 20% to 40% would force Betfred to close 495 of its 1,094 shops inside a year.
The closures would cut 2,575 jobs and forgo £67 million (US$89 million) in tax revenue for the Exchequer. Chancellor John Healey is weighing the change ahead of the Autumn Budget, as reported by Yogonet International.
Fiscal Strain on Retail Operations
Betfred’s shops still rely on fixed-odds betting terminals for roughly half their profits, even after the 2019 maximum stake cut to £2. The company has already closed 132 outlets this year after the Remote Gaming Duty rise. Chief Executive Jo Whittaker stated at the time: “We have tried hard to protect all our sites and the colleagues who work in them, but the combined impact of higher employer National Insurance contributions, wage inflation, increases in gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty has left us with no choice.”
Evoke shut 200 William Hill shops in April under comparable pressures. Entain CEO Stella David projected an additional £100 million (US$134 million) in costs from the MGD shift and wrote to the Prime Minister that workers and communities would lose long-established high-street businesses. Done also flagged delayed sponsorship renewals for Britain’s five classic horse races, including the Epsom Derby.
Risks of Further Tax Hikes
Done rejected Treasury Select Committee Chair Dame Meg Hillier‘s view that such warnings amount to scaremongering. He questioned the tax load on business owners after his family paid £400 million (US$534 million) last year: “They keep saying those with the broadest shoulders should be paying more tax. Well, how broad do my shoulders have to be?”
The founder predicted total high-street collapse: “I believe that by 2030 we will have no betting shops. The high street will be dead. We’ve already worked it out that with the increases in taxes and salaries and other wages it won’t be worth operating.” He added that shrinking regulated supply risks sending problem gamblers toward black-market operators.
The High Street Calculus
Any duty doubling must be measured against verifiable job losses, foregone revenue, and the shift of activity beyond regulatory reach. Operators facing these stacked cost increases will accelerate store rationalisation; policymakers weighing the Autumn Budget need clear data on net fiscal and community outcomes before locking in rates that render retail premises unviable.
Reporting: Yogonet International
Generated by SCCG’s automated editorial system from published source reporting. SCCG Management holds editorial responsibility.
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