William Hill owner Evoke has urged the Government to “carefully consider” further tax hikes for the gambling industry after blaming the closure of 270 betting shops on last year’s budget.
It comes as the company is preparing to be taken over by Greek gambling firm Bally’s Intralot in a £243 million deal, which it expects to complete by the end of this year or early next.
Evoke announced the closure of a chunk of its betting shops in April after revealing it had sunk deeper into a loss.
The closures were expected to help offset an expected increase in betting taxes of up to £135 million a year from 2027 due to changes affecting online gambling firms introduced by former chancellor Rachel Reeves.
From April this year, remote gaming duty – levied on online casino games – increased from 21% to 40% of a provider’s profits.
There will also be a new online sports betting duty of 25%, which will cover all sports except horse racing, from 2027.
Per Widerstrom, Evoke’s chief executive, said the business “continues to show resilience” and a focus on profitability “following the substantial increases in gaming duties, particularly in the UK”.
“The closure of 270 shops over the past year shows the real impact on jobs and livelihoods from higher industry taxation, and we urge the UK Government to carefully consider any further increases ahead of its forthcoming autumn Budget,” he said.
The Government is reportedly considering an increase in the rate of machine games duty, which is the tax on fruit machines, roulette machines and other slot machines, at the Budget next week.
Earlier this month, Ladbrokes owner Entain and Grosvenor casino parent firm Rank Group both urged the Government to rethink the reported proposals to avoid shops and venues closing.
And on Tuesday, rival gambling group Flutter, which owns Paddy Power, said it was cutting around 1,400 jobs in the UK and Ireland as part of a major restructuring to mitigate this year’s higher betting and gaming duties.
UK and Ireland boss Kevin Harrington said the group was not able to “fully absorb” the impact without cutting costs.
Meanwhile, Evoke gave shareholders an update on recent trading, with group revenues totalling £406 million in the third quarter.
This was 7% lower than the same period last year, or 2% lower when stripping out the impact of the approximately 270 fewer betting shops.
Evoke said sales growth was stifled by “customer-friendly sports results” at the beginning of the football season – meaning it had to pay out more winnings to punters.