HMRC Data Reveals UK Betting Tax Receipts Climb to £1.933 Billion After Duty Rate Changes
Viktor Wagner · Oct 6, 2026
HMRC Data Reveals UK Betting Tax Receipts Climb to £1.933 Billion After Duty Rate Changes
HM Revenue and Customs released figures covering April through July 2026 that placed total UK betting and gaming tax receipts at £1.933 billion, an increase of 19 percent or £309 million compared with the same four months in 2025, and Remote Gaming Duty now supplies half of the overall total after its rate rose from 21 percent to 40 percent on 1 April 2026.
The higher rate took full effect in July, which explains why Remote Gaming Duty accounted for exactly 50 percent of receipts across the period even though earlier months reflected a transitional mix of the old and new percentages, while General Betting Duty and Lottery Duty both recorded year-on-year declines.
Breakdown of the April–July Receipts
Remote Gaming Duty generated the largest single share because online casino, bingo and gaming operators paid the elevated 40 percent rate on their gross profits from April onward, and the July data alone showed the complete impact of the new rate, which lifted its contribution above every other duty category for the first time in recent records.
General Betting Duty, which covers fixed-odds and pool betting on sports and racing, fell as a proportion of the total, and Lottery Duty also posted lower receipts than in the corresponding months of 2025, leaving the overall growth entirely attributable to the remote gaming sector.
Timing of the Rate Change and Its Visible Effects
The 1 April increase applied immediately to all remote gaming operators licensed in the UK, yet the full monthly impact did not appear until July because April, May and June returns still included some activity taxed at the previous 21 percent rate, and HMRC statisticians noted that July receipts alone demonstrated the new 40 percent level across the entire remote gaming base.
By the end of the four-month window the combined duties reached £1.933 billion, a figure published on 30 September 2026 as part of the regular Betting and gaming tax receipts statistics (April–July 2026 update), and analysts examining the same dataset observed that the shift in duty weighting had already altered the composition of total collections.
Comparison With Earlier Periods
Year-on-year growth of £309 million represents the net result after declines in General Betting Duty and Lottery Duty were offset by the larger Remote Gaming Duty payments, and the 19 percent overall rise stands in contrast to the more modest increases recorded in the preceding financial year when the remote gaming rate remained at 21 percent.
Data covering the same April–July window in 2025 had shown a smaller total and a more even split among duty categories, whereas the 2026 numbers illustrate how a single rate adjustment concentrated revenue collection within one duty stream.
Context for October 2026
By mid-October 2026 the September release has become the most recent official snapshot available, and government statisticians continue to monitor whether the July pattern persists through the remainder of the calendar year as operators adjust to the sustained 40 percent rate.
The figures released at the end of September already provide the clearest evidence yet of how the duty change redistributed the tax burden across different segments of the licensed gambling market.
Conclusion
The HMRC April–July 2026 dataset therefore records both an overall increase in receipts and a structural change in which Remote Gaming Duty supplies half of the total, while other duties contribute smaller shares than in the prior year, and further monthly updates will reveal whether this new balance remains stable through the rest of 2026.