HM Revenue and Customs has warned that UK pubs have only a week left to register for Machine Games Duty or face stiff financial penalties. Premises have until 11 January to register for the new MGD system which comes into force on 1 February 2013.

A statement from HMRC said licensees can be charged a penalty of between 30pc and 100pc of unpaid tax, and may be issued even if there is no tax due. MGD replaces both amusement machine licensing duty - the annual charge for making a gaming machine available for play - and standard-rate VAT on net takings.

The government body has said it will make every effort to process late registrations but has warned operators that it cannot guarantee that applications received after 11 January will be processed by 1 February.