TLDR
- Jumpman Gaming won its appeal at the UK Upper Tribunal against a £13.2m Remote Gaming Duty bill from HMRC.
- The dispute was about money won from promotional free spins and later gambled again.
- The Upper Tribunal reversed two findings made by the First-tier Tribunal in September 2025.
- The court ruled that wagers from free spins won through an initial free spin should not face the duty.
- HMRC still has the right to appeal the decision.
Jumpman Gaming has won a legal fight with the UK tax authority over a £13.2m tax bill. The Upper Tribunal ruled in the company’s favor last week, reducing the bill to zero for now.
Jumpman Gaming is based in Guernsey and mainly offers online slot games. The bill was issued by HM Revenue and Customs, known as HMRC, under the Remote Gaming Duty.
Remote Gaming Duty is a tax charged on the profits of online gambling operators. The disputed bill covered the period from July 2018 to December 2022.
The Dispute Over Free Spins
The case focused on promotional free spins that operators give customers at no cost. It centered on what happens to the money players win from those spins.
Customers often gambled those winnings again on the same online casino. HMRC said this re-wagered money counted as revenue that could be taxed.
Jumpman Gaming disagreed. The company objected to the inclusion of one of its promotional products, called Mega Reel, in the bill.
The company first took the case to the First-tier Tribunal. That court sided with HMRC in September 2025.
Jumpman Gaming then appealed to the Upper Tribunal. The higher court reversed two of the earlier court’s decisions.
What the Court Decided
The Upper Tribunal found the First-tier Tribunal made a mistake by leaving out consultation documents from 2016. Those papers were written before the relevant law was passed.
It also said the lower court read the phrase “the gaming” too narrowly. That phrase appears in the Finance Act 2014, which governs duties such as Remote Gaming Duty.
Jumpman Gaming argued the phrase referred to gambling in general, including Mega Reel. HMRC argued it only covered games where the operator waived the usual cost of taking part, such as deposits and stakes.
The First-tier Tribunal had backed HMRC because Mega Reel is a free-to-play game. The Upper Tribunal has now ruled that money wagered from free spins won through an initial promotional free spin should be exempt from the duty.
The Finance Act 2017 also played a role in the case. That law covers promotional offers such as free spins, bonus credits and matched deposits, and sets out which re-wagered funds are excluded from tax.
The ruling gives operators, tax officials and courts a precedent to use when reading gambling tax rules in the future. It deals with how winnings from free promotions are treated.
The case is separate from the recent rise in Remote Gaming Duty. The rate went from 21% to 40% in April 2026, a change the industry opposed.
The matter is not fully settled. HMRC still has the right to appeal the Upper Tribunal’s ruling.
