Betfred Warns of Mass Closures Amid Proposed £3bn Gambling Tax Hike
Betfred has warned it will close all 1,300 of its high street betting shops if Chancellor Rachel Reeves goes ahead with a proposed £3bn tax increase on the gambling industry.
Chief executive Joanne Whittaker said such a move would force the company to shut down its entire retail operation, leading to the loss of 6,800 jobs.
“The most frightening element is we’re going to lose the whole retail business,” Ms Whittaker told The Sunday Times. “We’ve got people in the Treasury who don’t understand our business.”
The proposal forms part of a campaign led by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), calling for higher gambling taxes to fund the abolition of the two-child benefit cap. The IPPR estimates the measures could raise £3.4bn annually by 2030, on top of the £3.8bn the sector is already projected to pay in tax this year.
In a letter to the Chancellor and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, Ms Whittaker warned that the plan could have “the opposite of its intended effect” — reducing tax revenue, driving gamblers toward the black market, and destroying thousands of jobs in vulnerable communities.
She added that tax rises at the levels proposed by the IPPR would make the entire retail betting sector financially unviable, potentially wiping bookmakers off the high street and putting up to 46,000 jobs at risk across the industry.
The warning comes as the Chancellor faces pressure to find £30bn through tax rises and spending cuts to stabilise public finances amid weak economic growth and high interest rates.
