Flutter Entertainment is the latest gambling industry giant to confirm mass redundancies, with as many as 1,400 jobs expected to be lost.
The Betfair and Paddy Power owner will make the cuts across their UK and Irish operations. They amount to around 15% of their total workforce.
A statement made by the firm pointed the finger of blame at last year’s Gambling Tax hikes, which were announced almost a year to the day in the 2025 Autumn Budget.
And with the 2026 edition likely to reveal another industry tax grab, Flutter and other significant players are bracing themselves for more job losses and cost cutting measures in the near future.
Cost Mitigation
Flutter confirmed that all departments at their Leeds and Dublin offices are under review as it announced plans to ‘restructure’ its UK and Irish business.
As part of their restructuring, the ‘cost mitigation’ of a consultation could see as many as 1,400 job roles lost.
Although stopping short of blaming individuals, the firm’s spokesperson commented that the operator ‘continued to expect these tax increases to have a very significant impact on the overall market.’
“The restructure announced today is expected to support Flutter in delivering material second order mitigation benefits, by preserving investment in our customer proposition, and underpins our confidence in our ability to gain share,” the statement reads.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Flutter’s share price is now trading at its lowest value since 2020.
These are tough times for the firm, who replaced their former CEO Peter Jackson earlier this year. As well as their struggles in the UK, the predicted slam dunk of their FanDuel acquisition has failed to bear fruit, as more punters in the US shun traditional betting for prediction markets.
Fundamental Change
Since the announcement was made, Flutter’s chief executive Kevin Harrington has added further context to the firm’s current situation.
“The material increase in betting and gaming duties announced in the UK Budget last year has fundamentally changed the economic model of the regulated betting and gaming industry in the UK, while helping to fuel the unlicensed, unregulated market,” he said.
“As we warned a year ago, we cannot fully absorb a rise of this magnitude without reducing our fixed cost base, and therefore must restructure our business so that we can best position ourselves for the future.”
Harrington confirmed that he was ‘confident’ that Flutter, who also own Sky Bet in the UK and FanDuel in the United States, would continue to gain market share thanks to the scale of their operations in the UK and overseas.
It was in November 2025 that the then chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced plans to hike two different tax mechanisms – Remote Gaming Duty and Remote Betting Duty – by 19% and 10% respectively.
Since then, hundreds of betting shops have been closed by the likes of Betfred and Paddy Power as part of cost cutting measures, with thousands of employees made redundant by the likes of Entain and others as they seek to mitigate the impact of lost revenue.
And the situation could worsen if another industry tax, Machine Games Duty (MGD), is hiked by the new chancellor, John Healey, one year on from the devastation his predecessor wreaked on the sector.
Call of Duty
Healey is expected to hike the rate of MGD, which is paid on various gaming machines found in betting shops, casinos, bingo halls and Adult Gaming Centres.
The current MGD levels range from 5% to 25%, depending on the machine type and the stake/prize money associated. The chancellor will almost certainly increase this in his Autumn Budget next week, with some rumours suggesting a hike up to 40%.
If that is the outcome when Healey wields his red suitcase next Wednesday (October 28), market analysis firm Regulus Partners claims that more than 4,000 high street betting shops will be closed as mitigation – with thousands of redundancies.
As an unexpected side effect, the funding paid by betting shops into horse racing’s coffers via the betting levy and media rights would fall by a staggering £92 million a year.
Bingo halls will also be forced to close, with Rank Group chief Richard Harris confirming that one-in-three of the firm’s Mecca Bingo sites would be shuttered permanently – with consequences for their Grosvenor Casino venues as well.
At a time when employers across the board are recruiting less and replacing human staff members with AI, it will be fascinating to see if the Prime Minister and his right-hand man decide to push the button on mass redundancies to further their own personal crusade against the gambling industry.