High-Street Venues Register as Bingo Halls Amid New Tax Measures

Records from the Gambling Commission show over 200 adult gaming centres across the UK registered as bingo halls while operating mainly with high-stakes Category B3 slot machines, and this registration pattern has drawn attention after the October 28, 2026 Budget introduced changes to Machine Games Duty and business rates relief for such venues.

Operators including Merkur and Admiral maintain these sites under bingo licences, which means the venues fall outside the scope of the 5-percentage-point increase in Machine Games Duty scheduled for April 2027 on higher-stakes machines, and they also retain eligibility for existing business rates relief that the Budget removes for standard adult gaming centres.

Budget Measures Target Slot Operations

Chancellor John Healey announced the duty rise and the end of rates relief as part of efforts to address what the government described as “slot farms” concentrated on high-street locations, and the measures were set to take effect from April 2027 onward, while campaigners and several MPs called for steps to prevent operators from using existing licence categories to sidestep the adjustments.

Venues holding bingo licences continue to offer primarily gaming machines rather than traditional bingo sessions, and visits to multiple sites found bingo equipment either absent or not in active use, even though the premises carry the regulatory designation that exempts them from the new duty rate and rates relief withdrawal.

Licence Categories and Machine Usage

Adult gaming centres typically require specific permissions to install Category B3 machines that accept stakes up to £2 and offer prizes up to £500, yet the bingo hall registration provides an alternative pathway that keeps the same machines in place without triggering the higher duty calculation, and Gambling Commission data lists these more than 200 locations under the bingo heading despite their day-to-day focus on machine play.

Operators have held these dual registrations for some time, and the current Budget changes bring renewed focus to how licence types interact with tax obligations, while the pattern affects hundreds of high-street sites operated by major companies in the sector.

Responses and Calls for Review

Campaign groups monitoring gambling regulation have highlighted the discrepancy between licence categories and actual operations, and MPs have urged the Gambling Commission and Treasury to examine whether additional rules are needed to align venue classifications with their primary activities, while the existing framework allows bingo-registered sites to proceed under the prior duty and rates structure.

The development occurs as November 2026 progresses following the late-October announcement, and industry observers continue to track how operators adjust their licence holdings ahead of the April 2027 implementation date for the duty increase and rates relief removal.

Regulatory Records and Site Details

Gambling Commission registers list the affected venues under bingo operations, and this classification has remained in place even as machine counts and customer activity centre on slot play, whereas traditional bingo elements appear limited or non-functional according to on-site checks reported in coverage of the issue.

Companies such as Merkur and Admiral operate multiple locations that fit this description, and the total exceeds 200 premises nationwide, which places a significant portion of the high-street adult gaming sector under the bingo licence category ahead of the scheduled tax changes.

Conclusion

The situation centres on the interaction between existing licence types and the new fiscal measures announced in the October 2026 Budget, and regulators along with lawmakers now face questions about whether further clarification of venue categories will follow before the April 2027 deadlines take effect.