October 30, 2026

The sector headlines around the budget have been focussed on machine gaming duty and the impact on retail businesses which is naturally concerning news for the industry but seemingly not as bad as it could have been.

A lesser reported but nevertheless important aspect of the budget from a gambling perspective is the trailed legislative amendments to the remote gaming duty (RGD) legislation: Remote Gaming Duty: tax treatment of freeplays, prizes and tournament entry – GOV.UK

The legislative measures announced were:

1. An update to clarify HMRC’s position on the treatment of freeplays following the recent Jumpman case in the Upper Tribunal*, ostensibly to address ‘different interpretations’ of the current legislation. As always, the devil will be in the detail, but the new measures announced will set out circumstances in which a freeplay (now labelled a ‘restricted play’) won through the use of another ‘restricted play’ can be excluded when calculating an operator’s RGD profits,  which in broad terms will be when a ‘restricted play’ has been won in circumstances where no other benefit is offered in its place and it is then staked on a remote game.
2. Refinement of the meaning of ‘prizes’; (a)  to include a requirement that a prize must be paid or provided under the published rules of the game; and (b) to specify the circumstances in which the return of a gaming payment following the interruption or termination of a game may be treated as a prize for the purposes of RGD calculations.
3. New powers for HMRC to make regulations about when a gaming payment is, or is not, treated as waived.
4. Clarification of when participation in a tournament is to be treated as playing a game of chance.

We will of course need to see the draft legislation before the full implications can be accurately assessed.

*Note that the standard appeal window has closed and there has been no announcement by HMRC that they have appealed, however since this is not necessarily  a public process we cannot yet say with certainty.