JenningsBet CEO: It’s not a bluff to say tax hikes will decimate this hard-pressed sector

Almost year ago, then Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her Autumn Budget left land-based gambling taxes unchanged, despite raising online gambling taxes significantly. The Treasury accepted the evidence which showed raising gambling taxes would close betting shops and bingo halls, cost thousands of jobs and consequently lead to a reduction in tax receipts.

Has anything changed since then? Not that I can see. And yet, following a report in July by think tank the Social Market Foundation (SMF) which recommended doubling machines games duty (MGD) to 40% in land-based venues, speculation has been rife that this time round gambling on the High Street could get clobbered.

The SMF appears to have an anti-gambling agenda but has underplayed the knock-on effect of its suggested tax hike. It denies it will lead to shop closures and job losses, but anybody with even a modicum of economic understanding will know that’s not true.

Betting shop numbers have dropped by a third in the past seven years, with 400 having closed in 2026 alone. This is an industry that isn’t bluffing when it says raising taxes will decimate an already hard-pressed sector.

We are family

We are a fourth-generation, family-owned business. We are not a faceless, foreign-owned entity offshoring its profits. We employ nearly 900 people. Our staff are real people with real jobs. Our payroll last year amounted to £23m, and those wages go straight into local economies and paying mortgages. 

We have grown from 10 shops in 1995 to over 200 now. That has taken millions of pounds of investment. Every shop-fit brings work to electricians, plumbers, carpenters and a host of other trades. Meanwhile, our tax contribution alone last year topped £20m between employer’s National Insurance, general betting duty and MGD.

We can’t do any of that if we’re closed. Even the most ardent anti-gambling campaigner would concede that betting shops employ thousands of people, contribute directly to the horseracing industry via the Levy, media rights and sponsorship, as well as pay business rates and an awful lot of tax.

I know plenty of MPs who recognise betting shops and bingo halls have a social value and function as community hubs in their own way. Even the neutral ones accept that if people are going to gamble it should be in a safe and properly regulated environment.

We organise a charity bet on The Grand National every year for MPs in their local constituencies. It is well received and MPs from all political parties participate. So, if we have an industry that contributes billions in taxes, funds British horseracing, employs thousands of people and is not universally loathed in parliament, why would the SMF come for a second bite at the cherry?

Is it because it thinks it has more chance of success with this new government? The SMF is emboldened by Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s comments linking betting shops with vape shops and other “dodgy businesses”. My fear is the government could see October’s Autumn Budget as an opportunity to remove gambling venues from the High Street by taxing them into oblivion.

That would be a colossal mistake. People will always gamble. They always have. Close betting shops and those people will find their way to the black market. That’s what happens when you shut down a well-regulated and taxed sector. People find another way.

Centre of attention

I’m not even sure shops like mine are even the main target here. It’s an indisputable fact that thousands of betting shops have closed and, so, proliferation is no longer an issue. The only land-based gambling venues to have become more prominent on our high streets are Adult Gaming Centres (AGCs).

If AGCs are the real problem, the government has the answer already… which brings me on to the proposed scrapping of the ‘aim to permit’ provision contained in the Gambling Act 2005.

Currently, local authorities are powerless to refuse a well-made application for a gambling premises licence because their hands are tied by a law which states they should aim to permit. Even a refusal is likely to be overturned on appeal.

By removing the aim to permit provision, the government would give local authorities the ability to control new gambling venues on their high streets. Local authorities already have the power to review the licence of any gambling venue and impose conditions such as trading times and staffing levels. They can even close them down if there is sufficient reason to do so.

That is the most efficient way to restrict the number of gambling venues. No lost tax revenue, no lost jobs, no empty shops. If Chancellor John Healey’s Budget is based on growth, I will continue to invest. If it’s about jobs. I’ll continue to employ people.

If it’s about contributing to the economy, I’ll continue to pay millions in taxes. But if it’s about listening to a think tank with an apparent agenda, I’m out of business and another 900 people go on the dole.

Greg Knight is the owner and CEO of JenningsBet, the largest independent retail bookmaker in the UK. The company operates 213 branches nationwide and employs 900 people. Knight sits on the executive committee of the Betting and Gaming Council and is a board member of the British Greyhound Racing Fund.