Betfred founder Fred Done, Britain's biggest taxpayer, told the Financial Times he "would not wish to be reborn" in the UK, saying his family paid 400 million pounds in tax last year while bookmakers face ever-rising levies. He warned almost half of Betfred's 1,094 betting shops could shut within a year if gambling taxes rise further.
Done, 83, told the Financial Times he was "too old" to join the ranks of wealthy residents leaving the country but would "not wish to be reborn" in present-day Britain. "They keep saying those with the broadest shoulders should be paying more tax. Well, how broad do my shoulders have to be? We paid £400 million in taxes as a family last year," he said. Betfred itself said it paid £210 million in UK taxes in the year to March.
The threat Done flagged was a further increase in gambling duties. He warned that almost half of Betfred's 1,094 shops could shut within a year and predicted that all bookmakers would be "dead" by 2030. Chancellor John Healey is reported to be considering raising machine games duty — the tax levied on slot machines — in his October budget. Fixed-odds betting terminals, on which the maximum stake was cut to £2 in 2019, account for half of Betfred's shop profits. "Without them, there is no retail industry, it's impossible," Done warned.
Done's broadside came amid a wider exodus of billionaires. Chris Rokos, the country's third-biggest taxpayer, is switching his residency to Greece, while the steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and Egypt's richest man Nassef Sawiris have also left Britain since the non-dom tax exemptions were abolished last year. Done said there were better opportunities for his family elsewhere, but insisted that closing betting shops would do little to curb gambling: punters would simply turn to the black market, with no tax revenue for the Treasury.
The reaction was sharply divided. Gambling campaigners and think tanks have pressed for machine games duty to rise from 20% to 40% — a move the Social Market Foundation says could raise up to £458 million for the Treasury — arguing that high-jackpot machines extract more than £2.4 billion a year from high-street gamblers. Critics dismissed Done's complaints; LabourList accused the billionaire of "crying" over tax, pointing to research linking gambling premises to crime and deprivation. The Chancellor's autumn Budget, expected in late October, will be the next flashpoint — and Done's warning of mass closures has set up a lobbying battle over the future of the high street.