The UK doubled its gaming tax. Flutter cut $210M from its profit forecast.
The UK’s remote gaming duty rose from 21% to 40% in April 2026. On 5 August, Flutter, the owner of Paddy Power and Sky Bet, put a figure on it. It expects a hit of roughly $320M to 2026 profit before it takes action to offset it.
Flutter also cut its full-year profit forecast by $210M and posted a $296M quarterly loss. The duty now takes forty pence of every pound of gross gaming revenue in its home market.
A tax rise is a margin problem, and margin problems find the weakest operators first. When forty percent of gross revenue goes to the state, the room to buy customers with promotions shrinks fast.
What survives a 40% duty is the operator whose players come back without being paid to. That is brand equity and what each customer is worth over time doing the work a bonus used to do.
Expect the squeeze to land on the mid-tier first. Operators who competed mainly on price and bonus have the least cushion as the duty stacks on top of stake limits.
A further remote betting duty rise to 25% is already scheduled for 2027. The operators that build brand now will be the ones still standing when the next increase lands.