UK broadcaster ITV’s expansion into iGaming is set to come to an abrupt halt after its operational partner, Richmond Atlantic, has been forced to close in light of the UK tax hikes.
A message on ITV Win Spins and Bingo informs players that the platform – which was released in the days before Rachel Reeves confirmed an almost doubling in remote gambling tax to 40% – will be permanently closed from 12pm on 5 May.
ITV confirmed to SlotBeats that the decision has been made because Richmond Atlantic has chosen to wind down its operations due to ‘unsustainable’ tax rises on the UK market.
An ITV spokesperson said: “Sadly, we understand that Richmond Atlantic, the operator of the ITV Win Bingo and Spins website, is unable to continue trading and so the business and the site are being wound down.
“All customers have been informed of the closure and asked to withdraw their money from their accounts. Anyone who is unable to do so within the allocated period will then be contacted manually to withdraw their funds, in line with UKGC regulations.”
Alongside an increase in remote gambling duty to 40%, which came into effect on 1 April, a new general betting duty rate for remote betting will also be introduced from April 2027 at 25%.
Operators across the UK industry have warned that they will be forced to take action to mitigate the financial impact of these changes through measures such as slashing marketing budgets.
However, for Richmond Atlantic, the new tax climate proved to be too much for the Gibraltar-based company founded in 2024.
“Sadly, with the tax rise that was announced in November and became effective this month, despite a number of mitigations that we put in place for early trading, it has become clear that the business is not able to continue in the new tax environment,” a company spokesperson told SlotBeats.
“We have explored all options, including the sale of Richmond to another UK-facing operator, but this has not come to fruition, and therefore we have made the decision to wind down the business.”
Gibraltar looks for alternatives
The closure of Richmond Atlantic only fuels concerns laid out by Gibraltar’s Minister for Justice, Trade and Industry, Nigel Feetham, who said in the wake of changes that they would negatively affect Gibraltar’s tax revenue.
He said in December: “The tax revenue generated helps to fund our public services, health care and education, and to strengthen our public finances – without increasing the burden on ordinary working people. This announcement, unfortunately, could put us back to where we were before then.”
In a bid to mitigate the impact, Gibraltar has moved to embrace the economic potential offered by prediction markets, despite the majority of jurisdictions choosing to shun the emerging vertical.
Earlier this week, Feetham said that the jurisdiction is moving at pace across digital sectors, including prediction markets, to ensure that it can ‘lead from the front’, as he noted that there has been ‘strong interest’ since the Gibraltar Gaming Commissioner licensed ADI PredictStreet.