England’s 2027 business-rates change will remove adult gaming centres (AGCs) from lower retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers, but the treatment of machine-led venues licensed for bingo depends on rules the Treasury has yet to detail.
The Oct. 28 Budget set two measures for April 1, 2027. Machine Games Duty (MGD), charged on net takings from machine games, will rise from 20% to 25% for games with stakes over £1 or prizes over £100. Separately, AGCs in England will lose eligibility for the lower Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) multipliers. The government says revenue from the higher duty will help fund a real-terms freeze in business rates for qualifying properties. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government set out England’s 2027/2028 business-rates details in an Oct. 28 letter.
Government guidance lists bingo halls among premises that may qualify for the lower multipliers when a property is used wholly or mainly for an eligible purpose. Local authorities decide whether a property meets that test. The Treasury says it will amend the qualifying-property definition and publish more detail on which premises count as AGCs. Paul Turner-Mitchell, a business-rates expert at Altus Group, told The Guardian: “A bingo licence alone does not settle its business rates treatment.”
The Gambling Commission says it is aware of some AGC premises licence-holders converting to bingo premises. Its licensing condition requires “substantive facilities for non-remote bingo” to be provided under the bingo licence and available at the premises. A Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) consultation considered options to designate 30%, 40% or 50% of a licensed premises’ floor space as a continuous bingo area. The consultation closed Jan. 30, 2026.
The DCMS consultation cited the Bingo Association’s count of 218 registered high-street bingo venues in 2024. The government expected many to be predominantly machine-led but said detailed official data on their number was unavailable. It also cited Gambling Commission estimates that bingo generated less than 1% of gross gambling yield for operators mainly or exclusively running high-street bingo premises, compared with 99% from gaming machines.
Separately, The Guardian reported that its analysis of Gambling Commission records found more than 200 arcades licensed as bingo venues. The paper cautioned that duplicate records made the exact count difficult to establish. The rates change and higher MGD rate are scheduled to take effect April 1, 2027.
