Labour MP Alex Ballinger has called for work to begin on a new Gambling Act, arguing that the 2005 legislation is “just scratching the surface in terms of the amount of harm” and that the rise of online gambling has made a fresh statutory framework necessary.
Ballinger, who serves as co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Gambling Reform, made the remarks at a Social Market Foundation (SMF) panel in London on 30 June. The event was convened to present the SMF’s new policy paper calling for machine gaming duty (MGD) to be doubled from 20% to 40%.
The SMF’s machine gaming duty case
The SMF paper argues that HM Treasury applied inconsistent logic when it raised remote gaming duty and general betting duty in the autumn 2024 Budget while leaving MGD unchanged. The report reads:
“The Government agrees taxes should be set relative to harm — but this logic is not applied to machine gaming.”
The SMF’s target is specifically category B machines, the type commonly found in adult gaming centres (AGCs) and retail betting shops. These venues are concentrated in the most deprived areas of the country, a point Ballinger drew on when discussing the political case for reform.
Ballinger wrote the foreword for the report and described the doubling of MGD as a “no brainer,” calling the proposal “compelling” and “an easy win” given the public and political appetite for gambling tax increases.
A new political context
The panel came against the backdrop of Keir Starmer’s resignation as Prime Minister, with Andy Burnham, MP for Makerfield and former Mayor of Manchester, among those rumoured to be in the running for the top job. Ballinger pointed to Burnham’s public health record as a reason for optimism among reformers.
“He gets this stuff,”
Ballinger said of Burnham’s approach to gambling-related harms, adding that it was “no surprise” that Manchester — Burnham’s former manor — had one-third the number of AGCs compared to Birmingham: 6 versus 18.
Citing public sentiment, Ballinger told the audience:
“The public are really annoyed and pissed off with the amount of gambling advertising they’re seeing, particularly around the World Cup, with the cross selling that happens whenever they go horse racing, or they go to the bingo, pushing them to more harmful forms of gambling.”
That mood, he argued, creates a rare window for legislators. Gambling tax increases have historically attracted broad public support, and Ballinger believes that dynamic holds now.
The case for new primary legislation
Beyond the immediate MGD proposal, Ballinger was explicit that a new Gambling Act is the medium-term objective. Speaking in his capacity as APPG co-chair, he said:
“We would like to look in the medium term for a new Gambling Act to recognise the complete change that we’ve seen in the types of gambling, the new forms of online gambling and the like.”
He acknowledged the scale of the task. The 2023 white paper — implemented under the previous Conservative government — made 60 recommendations that are still being debated, contested and implemented. New primary legislation would be a substantial undertaking on top of that ongoing process.
Ballinger’s position was measured: he stopped short of claiming a new Act could pass in this parliament, but argued the groundwork can begin now.
“It may not be realistic for us to be talking about doing that this parliament, but we can get it ready to be in a manifesto for a future Labour government, potentially,”
he said, adding that “the work could happen in less than four years” and that he expected support from the parliamentary Labour party for new foundational legislation.
Whether the incoming Prime Minister shares that view is, as Ballinger himself put it, “yet to be tested.” The pace of regulatory change across the sector means the industry may have little time to prepare for whatever comes next.
Source: Social Market Foundation
