UK casino bonuses after 40% duty: more offers, less value

Last updated: 1 Nov 2026, 02:59 CET: first published

Since Remote Gaming Duty rose to 40% on 1 April 2026, UK casino sites have not cut the number of bonus offers for existing customers. They have run more of them, but each one has been worth less on average, according to data from Jurnii, a company that tracks gambling promotions. The welcome free-spins offers live in March were still live from late May, according to Jurnii.

The figures come from an analysis by Mitch Vidler, Jurnii's chief commercial officer, published by EGR Intel on 28 October. It is Jurnii's own work on its own data, and we have not seen the figures repeated elsewhere. Jurnii says its Jurnii 360 platform tracks every promotion and price boost across all UK operators each day. It compared March 2026, the last month before the rise, with the eight weeks that followed and with late May to mid-October. The data covers offers shown to logged-out visitors, from 1 March to 12 October 2026.

The duty change

Remote Gaming Duty is paid on gaming providers' profits from online gaming by customers who usually live in the UK. According to HMRC guidance, it rose from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026. The Budget on 28 October left it at 40%. Duty on sports betting is lower. General Betting Duty on fixed-odds bets is 15%, and a new 25% rate for remote bets is due from 1 April 2027, with remote bets on UK horse racing excluded, according to HMRC's gambling duty changes notice.

Jurnii uses that gap as a test. The same operators run casino and sports promotions on the same sites, but only casino had a new tax reason to change in April. In Jurnii's words: "where casino moved and sports did not, the duty is the likeliest cause."

More offers for existing customers

According to Jurnii:

• In the eight weeks after 1 April, the average casino brand ran 26% more existing-customer offers each day than in March. Sports offers on the same sites fell 2%.
• From late May to October, casino offers were still 17% above March. Sport was 1% above.
• Almost all of the extra casino offers were drops worth £1 or less, or loyalty-coin offers with no stated value. Offers worth more than £1 did not increase.

Each offer worth less

Jurnii measured value brand by brand, using eight casino brands (and 10 sports brands) that had at least two offers with a stated value in every period.

• The typical casino brand's existing-customer offer was worth 16% less in the eight weeks after the rise, and 19% less from late May.
• Across those eight casino brands, the average offer fell from £5.66 in March to £4.25, and Jurnii says it has stayed there.
• In April and May, 53% of existing-customer casino offers were worth £1 or less, up from 42%. The median offer halved from £2 to £1, then returned to £2.
• The median sports offer stayed at £5 throughout.
• Five of the eight casino brands offered less value in the first eight weeks. Six were below their March level from late May.

What stayed the same, according to Jurnii

Welcome free-spins offers were not touched, according to Jurnii. Every casino welcome free-spins offer that was live in March was still live from late May, including bet365's £50, BetMGM's £40, Sky Bet's £25 and Unibet's £20. The median welcome free-spins offer fell to £10 later in the year only because more brands added new £10 offers, Jurnii says, not because existing ones were reduced.

On the sports side, across the 10 sportsbooks Jurnii tracked for price boosts, the average margin given away on a single boost rose from 2.98 to 3.13 percentage points in the eight weeks after 1 April, then eased to 2.65 points from late May.

Jackpots took a larger share of casino offers: 4.7% from late May, up from 2.4% in March. The number of brands promoting a casino jackpot went from four to seven by May. Jurnii notes that many of these are pooled or network jackpots, such as Unibet's £1m Hot Drops, rather than bonuses paid for by the operator.

Jurnii also flags a figure that does not point to the duty. In Jurnii's data, new casino launches fell 22% in the eight weeks after 1 April, but sportsbook launches fell 43%. Jurnii puts that down to the calendar, with Cheltenham falling in March.

What this means when you compare offers

Our reading: if Jurnii's sample is a fair guide, the change for UK players is in the everyday offers to existing customers, not in sign-up offers. You may see more promotions in a casino lobby than before, but more of them are small: a £1 drop or a coin offer with no stated value. A long list of offers says little about what they are worth. Compare the value of each offer and its terms, such as wagering and expiry, rather than how many there are.

The limits matter too. The value figures cover eight casino brands, not the whole market. Offers were recorded as shown to logged-out visitors. Our reading: that likely leaves out personal offers sent to individual accounts. And the link to the duty is Jurnii's reading of its own data, and we have not seen any operator comment.

A smaller bonus is not a reason to deposit more to make up the difference. If you want to talk to someone about your gambling, GamCare runs a free helpline on 0808 8020 133, available 24 hours a day.

For the size of the market these offers sit in, see British online casino yield for 2025-26. For one operator's response to the tax rises, see Flutter's planned UK and Ireland job cuts. To compare current offers and their terms, see our bonuses page.

Updates

• 1 Nov 2026: first published.