UK 40% Remote Gaming Duty: what it does to bonus costs

Updated 2026-10-20

Rates last checked 2026-10-20

On 1 April 2026 Remote Gaming Duty, the UK tax on online casino gross gaming yield, rose from 21% to 40%. It arrived three months after the Gambling Commission capped wagering requirements at 10x and banned mixed-product bonuses. For CRM teams the combination changes the economics of every casino offer, and the effect is easy to misread. This article shows what changed, with before and after numbers from the BonusBench bonus cost calculator.

What changed, and what did not

• Remote Gaming Duty: 21% to 40% of gross gaming profits from 1 April 2026.
• Remote betting (General Betting Duty on remote bets) stays at 15% until 1 April 2027, when it moves to 25%.
• Freeplays: unchanged. Since the 2017 reform, stakes made with free plays count as nil when calculating RGD profits, so a bonus never reduces the duty bill.
• Bonus rules: since 19 January 2026, wagering requirements are capped at 10x and bonuses that require play across products (for example bet on sports to unlock casino spins) are banned.

The freeplay treatment is the part that matters most for bonus economics. In markets where bonuses reduce the taxable base, a higher rate makes bonuses relatively cheaper, because the tax authority shares the cost. In the UK it works the other way: the bonus is paid out of what is left after a bigger tax bill.

The mechanics in one line

The cash cost of a given offer does not change when the rate goes up. What changes is the pot it comes out of. At 21% the operator keeps 79p of every pound of GGR; at 40% it keeps 60p. The same bonus therefore eats about 32% more of the retained margin (0.79 ÷ 0.60 = 1.32), and the GGR a player must generate before the offer pays back rises by the same proportion.

Before and after: three typical offers

Assume a £150 GGR per first-time depositor over the payback window, 70% take-up, 96% RTP slots and 30% completion for wagered offers (wager-free offers always complete).

Reading across the table:

• The bonus cost per FTD is identical at both rates: £6.30 for the 10x match, £21.00 for the wager-free £30 and £3.36 for 50 spins.
• Post-tax GGR per FTD falls from £118.50 to £90.00. That is the real hit, and it lands whether or not you run a bonus.
• The wager-free £30 goes from 17.7% to 23.3% of retained margin. Its break-even GGR rises from £26.58 to £35.00 per FTD.
• The 10x match barely registers: 5.3% of retained margin at 21%, 7.0% at 40%. Wagering now does more of the work than it did.

Where it really bites: low-value players

Averages hide the problem. Bonus-led acquisition tends to attract players with lower lifetime value. Run the same offers for a player worth £60 of GGR rather than £150:

At 21% a £30 wager-free offer took 44.3% of what a £60 player left behind; at 40% it takes 58.3%, and net contribution falls from £26.40 to £15.00 before any acquisition cost. Add a £20 affiliate CPA and the offer is close to break-even for that segment. The same player on the 10x match still contributes £29.70.

What to change in your offer design

• Re-run every evergreen welcome offer at 40%. If the break-even GGR is above what your median bonus-taking FTD generates, the offer is subsidising low-value players.
• Size wager-free offers to segment value. A £10 wager-free offer costs a third of a £30 one and keeps most of the conversion effect for casual players.
• Use the 10x cap rather than going wager-free by default. A 10x requirement recovers a large share of the bonus through the house edge and remains compliant.
• Watch game weighting. Weighting below 100% raises the real stakes needed and therefore the edge recovered; make sure it is clear in the terms.
• Do not fix the duty by cutting RTP without testing. Lower RTP raises edge recovery during wagering but can hurt retention, which is where the GGR assumption comes from.
• Measure completion rates under the 10x cap. Historic completion data from 35x offers will overstate how many players bust.

Sportsbook: 15% now, 25% from April 2027

Remote betting stays at 15% for one more year. Free bets get the same treatment as casino freeplays in our model (not deductible), so the logic is the same: when the rate moves to 25%, the cost of a free bet stays the same but takes a larger share of what the operator keeps (0.85 ÷ 0.75 = 13% more). Plan 2027 sportsbook acquisition budgets now.

Try it on your own offers

The calculator, pre-loaded with the wager-free £30 example, lets you compare the UK against a custom 21% rate side by side. Put in your own completion rate, take-up and GGR per FTD; the result shows net contribution and break-even NGR per player.