Would a gambling tax rise in the budget really shut shops and cost jobs?

Most of the betting industry is urging the chancellor not to double slot machine duty to raise up to £460m more a year

Gambling industry kingpins are fuming about reports that the chancellor, John Healey, is considering increasing taxes on high-street slot machines in his first budget.

The influential Social Market Foundation thinktank, the most vocal advocate for a rise in machine games duty (MGD), from 20% to 40%, thinks the measure could raise between £275m and £460m annually, on top of the roughly £610m collected last year.

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