On 1 October the Gambling Commission’s licence fees went up by about a quarter. It is the third new cost to land on online casinos in eighteen months.
Operators told the government these were “successive cost increases for the industry”. The government’s own forecasters expect most of the biggest one to reach you. Here is what has changed, and where you would notice it.
Three bills, one direction
The levy came first. Since 6 April 2025, every remote casino licensee has paid a statutory levy of 1.1% of its gross gambling yield, the money it keeps after paying out winnings. Half of it goes to treatment, 30% to prevention and 20% to research.
Then the big one. Remote Gaming Duty, the tax on what online casinos keep from your stakes, rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026. It was announced in the Autumn Budget last November, and HMRC estimates the package of duty changes will bring in £810 million in 2026-27 alone.
Now the fees. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport confirmed in June that operating licence fees would rise by a headline 25%, the first review since 2021. The regulations came into force on 1 October.
The reason is unglamorous. According to the government’s response, the Commission has been running an annual deficit of roughly £4 million, and even with the increase it still has to find at least £8 million of savings over five years.
So who pays?
The Office for Budget Responsibility, which checks the Treasury’s sums, answered that question when the duty was announced. Its estimate is that operators “will seek to pass through” around 90% of the duty increases “by increasing prices or reducing payouts”.
HMRC’s own impact note is even plainer. The measure, it says, “will impact individuals if the duty rate increase is passed on to them through a negative change in betting odds or return to player.”
Return to player. That is your money, described in a tax document.
Those are forecasts, not findings. Nobody has published a study showing what British casinos have actually done since April, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. However, a casino has only a handful of levers to pull, and you can watch every one of them.
Where you would see it
The bonuses. Welcome offers and free spins are a cost the operator sets for itself, and the easiest one to trim quietly. Smaller headline amounts, fewer free spins, or a reload offer that simply stops appearing are all worth noticing. Our casino bonuses guide covers what the terms should look like.
The RTP build. This is the one most players never see. Many studios supply the same slot in several return-to-player versions, and the casino chooses which one it runs. As our Book of Dead RTP versions breakdown shows, the reels, symbols and animations are identical. Only the price is different.
A casino looking to claw back a doubled tax bill does not need to change a single thing you would notice on screen. It needs to pick a different build.
The drift offshore. The OBR’s costing allows for some players moving to the illicit market. That is a risk to you, not a saving. An unlicensed site owes you no protections and no obligation to pay out, and there is nobody to complain to when it does not. When we checked, 48 of the 74 casinos we had ever reviewed could no longer take money from British players, which tells you how easily a familiar name can end up on the wrong side of the line.
What you can check yourself
Open any slot at your casino and find the information or paytable screen. The RTP figure is there, and it is the figure for the build that casino is running. Compare it with the same game at another site. If it is lower, you are paying more for the same spins.
Read the bonus terms before you take an offer, not after. And before any of that, make sure the site holds a Gambling Commission licence, which is where our guide to UK online casinos starts.
Higher taxes do not change the basic arithmetic. They just make it worth checking the price more carefully.
Image: New Government Offices (HM Treasury), Whitehall, by Tilman2007, CC BY-SA 4.0.
18+. Gambling should be entertainment, not income. Long term the house wins. Free and confidential help is at BeGambleAware.org.
