Image credit: Illustration by iGamingNews Editorial Desk. Not a depiction of Rank Group venues or personnel.
Rank Group's like-for-like net gaming revenue rose 5% to £216.1m in the three months to 30 September, and the company said it has made a strong start to its financial year.
Gaming machine revenue rose 14%, the fastest-growing channel in the update. Table gaming rose 3% and electronic gaming 5%. In the same update, chief executive Richard Harris warned that any rise in Machine Games Duty would increase costs and reduce venue viability.
Rank's divisions, by like-for-like NGR:
- Digital: £64.9m, up 6%, with UK digital up 6% and Mecca's online brand up 7%
- Grosvenor casinos: £108.1m, up 6%, with visits up 1% and spend per visit up 5%
- Mecca bingo: £32.2m, flat, with visits down 3%. Rank said a prolonged spell of hot weather was a significant contributor to the softer visits
- Enracha (Spain): £10.9m, up 7%
Enracha, the Spanish business, was the fastest-growing division, while Mecca was the only one not to grow. Rank also closed three venues, in Swansea, Reading Central and Sunderland, which it said were no longer economically viable in the medium term.
Rank said the quarter was "a strong start to the new financial year" and that, if the UK tax structure stays unchanged, it expects group like-for-like operating profit to be in line with market expectations. That condition is the core of the warning. Harris said HM Treasury "recognised these economic arguments last year," and that any increase to Machine Games Duty "will increase costs, reduce venue viability." Deutsche Bank, as cited by trade press, estimates a duty rise would cost Rank about £35m a year after partial mitigation, roughly 44% of its forecast 2028 EBIT.
Machine Games Duty applies to gaming machines, so the 14% rise in machine revenue is the part of the business a higher rate would hit most directly. No change to the duty has been announced in the sources reviewed, so the warning is conditional for now. It sits alongside the 40% Remote Gaming Duty rate that took effect in April 2026. For operators with a large machine estate, the Q1 numbers show that the revenue is there. The open question is what the tax line does to it.
Harris was previously confirmed as Rank's permanent CEO, and the margin pressure from the RGD rise is the backdrop for this warning.