The billionaire Done family, owners of the Betfred gambling empire, took a £30 million dividend from the business just before warning that proposed tax increases could trigger mass closures and job cuts across the industry, in a move that has sparked controversy over the timing and optics of the payout.
Betfred's holding company recently filed accounts at Companies House showing that the Warrington-based betting firm won a record £996 million from British punters in the year to the end of March 2026, booking a pre-tax profit of £64 million. The strong performance enabled an interim dividend of £30 million to shareholders — mainly a series of trusts benefiting the Done family — taking the value of shareholder payouts to more than £105 million since 2022. The money is understood to have been reinvested into other Done family businesses, including their burgeoning property empire.
At the same time, the industry has been lobbying hard against proposals being considered by the Chancellor, John Healey, to double the machine games duty in the upcoming budget. The Social Market Foundation thinktank has estimated such a move could raise up to £460 million for state coffers.
Industry leaders, led by Betfred boss Fred Done, argue the tax hike would devastate the sector. On Wednesday, Done was among industry signatories to a last-ditch letter to Healey, reported by Sky News, warning that the policy could trigger up to 1,470 betting shop closures, 34 casino closures and 15,900 job losses.
The coincidence of the dividend and the warning has drawn sharp criticism. Critics argue it undermines the industry's plea of financial hardship when the family behind one of Britain's biggest bookmakers has just extracted tens of millions from the business. Fred Done has previously spoken out publicly about the level of tax his family pays.
The accounts filing also revealed the scale of Betfred's dominance of the high-street betting market. The £996 million in gross winnings from customers represents a record for the firm and illustrates how much of the company's revenue depends on machine games and shop-based gambling — precisely the segment that would be hit by the proposed duty increase.
The gambling industry has faced increasing political and regulatory pressure in recent years over problem gambling, advertising, and the social costs of high-street betting shops. The Treasury's consideration of doubling machine games duty reflects a broader push to raise revenue from the sector.
For now, the ball is in the Chancellor's court. The industry's letter was described as a last-ditch plea ahead of the budget, and the government must weigh the projected £460 million in additional tax revenue against the sector's warnings of widespread closures. Betfred has not publicly commented on the dividend beyond the accounts filing.