UK tightens Remote Gaming Duty on free spins after Jumpman ruling

After two tribunal defeats over how bonus play and cashback are taxed, ministers are changing the legislation itself.

The UK will rewrite the Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) rules on free spins, prizes and tournaments from 1 April 2027, under the Finance Bill 2026-27 published on 4 November. The change replaces the freeplay exclusion that Jumpman Gaming relied on in September to overturn an HMRC assessment of about £13.2 million.

What the Finance Bill changes

Clause 82 of the Finance Bill replaces section 159A of the Finance Act 2014 with rules for ‘restricted play’, which HMRC’s impact note on freeplays, prizes and tournaments uses as the new name for freeplays:

• Restricted play covers play using non-withdrawable money from the operator, and play under an offer that waives all or part of a gaming payment.
• Money or offers won in a restricted play stay outside RGD only where the player cannot use them except for remote gaming, or take another benefit instead.
• A prize must be provided under the published rules of the game. A returned stake counts as a prize only if the game is interrupted or ended so it cannot be completed, through no fault of the player.
• A tournament counts as a game of chance where each player pays to enter and prizes depend only on the players’ ranking.
• HMRC can set out in regulations when a gaming payment ‘is, or is not, “waived”‘.

The government announced the measure in its Budget 2026 overview of tax legislation, saying it would ‘put beyond doubt’ the RGD treatment of freeplays, prizes and tournaments. HMRC puts the Exchequer impact at nil in every year to 2031-32, describing it as ‘an upstream compliance measure intended to reinforce existing policy’. RGD has been charged at 40% of remote gaming profits since 1 April 2026.

The cases HMRC lost

In Jumpman Gaming Ltd v HMRC, the Upper Tribunal ruled on 25 September that further free spins won from a free spin of the ‘Mega Reel’, given to new customers who made a qualifying deposit, fell within the statutory exclusion. It reduced HMRC’s assessments for July 2018 to December 2022 to nil, as EG reported in its coverage of the Jumpman tribunal win.

Super Group, which acquired a majority stake in Jumpman in 2022, carried a $26.4 million provision for the dispute, including penalties and interest, in its 2025 accounts.

In February 2024, the First-tier Tribunal ruled that L&L Europe’s cashback payments were prizes and allowed its appeal against an £807,284 RGD assessment. The cashback was 10% of players’ lost deposits.

What happens next

The Finance Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on 3 November, and its second reading has not been scheduled. The restricted play, prize and tournament changes apply to gaming beginning on or after 1 April 2027, the same date the machine games duty rise to 25% takes effect.

HMRC says the new rules will ‘provide greater certainty for operators, reduce the scope for dispute and protect future revenues’. Because they apply only to gaming from 1 April 2027, they do not affect the Jumpman and L&L Europe rulings.

The post UK tightens Remote Gaming Duty on free spins after Jumpman ruling appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.