Genting’s £1bn UK Bet Hinges on Machine Tax Call

Genting wants to keep building in the UK, with a long-eyed plan to turn London’s Trocadero building into a full casino floor. But with the Autumn Budget days away, the operator says the one thing standing between those plans and a shovel in the ground is clarity on how hard machine games duty is about to bite.

What’s been released

Genting’s Paul Willcock spoke at a panel discussion at London’s Hippodrome Casino on 14 October
,
joined by Night Time Industries Association CEO Mike Kill, Rank Group chief executive Richard Harris and Regulus Partners’ Dan Waugh
.
Willcock said the group remained keen to expand its UK investment, provided the financial and regulatory environment was stable
, summing up the mood with a line about Genting being
“itching to invest in the United Kingdom”
.

The centrepiece of that ambition is the Trocadero on Coventry Street.
Local councillors approved Genting’s plans to turn the building into a casino in 2025
, and
the conversion forms part of roughly £1bn Genting has invested in the UK since it arrived in the market
. It sits alongside wider land-based plans from operators across the sector that, taken together, Genting says could unlock meaningful spending on refurbished venues and updated gaming floors.

What’s changed

The catch is machine games duty.
The Social Market Foundation has proposed increasing the duty on higher-risk Category B machines from 20% to 40%
, a move that would land in the Budget expected at the end of October. Operators say that would hit at the worst possible time:
the industry warns a proposed MGD increase could undermine a £200 million investment pipeline
, and
an NTIA survey found most responding operators would cut staffing and investment
if the rise goes ahead.

Genting has put numbers on its own exposure.
Of the company’s 32 UK casinos, Willcock said that 13 would become “unprofitable or unsustainable” according to its own modelling
, with the change
adding roughly £16 million a year to the company’s cost base
. His argument, in short, is that a venue that shuts stops paying any duty at all. On the panel, Rank’s Richard Harris put the same worry more bluntly, warning that
“without confidence, things grind to a halt quite quickly.”

Where it fits

This isn’t happening in isolation.
It follows the rise in remote gaming duty, which increased from 21% to 40% this April
, meaning land-based operators are watching a tax pattern that has already reshaped how online products are priced and funded. Genting itself has already trimmed its estate once this year amid cost pressure, which makes the Trocadero project a useful bellwether: if the Budget delivers certainty rather than a steep increase, expect announcements on refurbished floors and new machine content to follow fairly quickly across the sector. If it goes the other way, the venues and games UK players can walk into on a high street could shrink rather than grow, even as online catalogues keep expanding.

For now, the message from Genting and its land-based peers is consistent: the appetite and the capital are there, and what happens over the next few days in the Budget will decide whether that £1bn figure keeps climbing or stalls where it stands.

Sources

• Casino.com – Genting ready to invest in UK but warns over machine games duty rise
• next.io – Casino bosses warn tax uncertainty will see UK investment grind to a halt
• iGaming Business – Genting ‘itching to invest’ further in UK market but wary of looming MGD hike
• InterGame – 38% of Genting UK casinos ‘unprofitable’ with MGD rise
• G3 Newswire – Increases to Machine Games Duty will wipe out planned investment in the UK casino sector
• iGaming Post – Genting UK Warns Machine Gaming Duty Rise Could Cause 13 Of Its Casinos To Close