Paddy Power Co-Founder Stewart Kenny Rejects Betfred Warnings on Machine Games Duty Doubling
Stewart Kenny dismissed Fred Done’s warnings that doubling UK Machine Games Duty to 40% would close 495 Betfred shops and eliminate 2,575 jobs. Kenny called the claims familiar scaremongering, citing unfulfilled predictions from fixed-odds betting terminal curbs. He urged Ireland to impose 40% tax on online casinos, rising toward 80%.
SCCG Take — Differentiated taxation by harm level offers a clearer policy path than blanket rises. Operators should model impacts on high-intensity products rather than assume uniform sector damage.
According to reporting by Focus Gaming News, Paddy Power co-founder Stewart Kenny has rejected Betfred founder Fred Done‘s warnings over proposed UK hikes in Machine Games Duty. Kenny described the predictions of sector collapse as “familiar scaremongering.”
Done had warned that doubling the duty to 40 per cent could leave high street bookmakers “dead” by 2030. He forecast that Betfred would close 495 betting shops, cut 2,575 jobs and reduce tax revenues by £67m within a year. Gaming machines generate around half of Betfred’s shop profits, Done said, and the uncertainty had already ended the firm’s decade-long sponsorship of rugby league’s Super League.
Kenny countered in a letter to the Financial Times that he had “used the same script” himself when representing bookmakers facing tax rises. “We also heard it before curbs were introduced on fixed-odds betting terminals; the predicted devastation did not follow,” he said. The former Paddy Power chief executive, who resigned from the company’s board in 2016, argued that taxation should target higher-harm products.
“A bet on a horse or football match is much less harmful than a machine designed for rapid, repetitive play, with near misses built in,” Kenny said. He added that “intelligent, not blanket, taxation of betting” is required to protect lower-harm products while taxing online slots and gaming machines more heavily. Scaremongering is no substitute for evidence.
Kenny Calls for Ireland to Mirror UK Online Casino Tax
Kenny has separately urged the Irish government to adopt a 40 per cent tax on online casinos, describing the products as “the crack cocaine of gambling” in a letter co-signed by addiction specialists and academics. Ireland is weighing an increase in its tax on gambling stakes from 2 per cent, plus a rise in pool betting duty from 1 to 2 per cent. Kenny’s letter presses for an immediate minimum 40 per cent levy on gross gambling yield for online casinos, with future rises toward levels “close to 80 per cent” as applied to tobacco.
The signatories contend that online operators steer customers from sports betting toward higher-margin casino products that require minimal staffing. The Betting and Gaming Council responded that tax or regulatory changes in one area inevitably affect an operator’s wider business.
What Past Outcomes Show for Current Proposals
Previous UK curbs on fixed-odds betting terminals did not produce the predicted industry devastation. Targeted tax measures that reflect relative product harm therefore warrant close examination in both the UK Autumn Budget process and Irish budget planning, without assuming uniform commercial collapse.
Reporting: Focus Gaming News
Generated by SCCG’s automated editorial system from published source reporting. SCCG Management holds editorial responsibility.
Gaming, betting and prediction markets — the desk’s read, every weekday.
Subscribe →