How to increase the distance between table columns in HTML?

There isn't any need for fake <td>s. Make use of border-spacing instead. Apply it like this:

HTML:

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>First Column</td>
    <td>Second Column</td>
    <td>Third Column</td>
  </tr>
</table>

CSS:

table {
  border-collapse: separate;
  border-spacing: 50px 0;
}

td {
  padding: 10px 0;
}

See it in action.

Set the width of the <td>s to 50px and then add your <td> + another fake <td>

Fiddle.

table tr td:empty {
  width: 50px;
}
  
table tr td {
  padding-top: 10px;
  padding-bottom: 10px;
}

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>First Column</td>
    <td></td>
    <td>Second Column</td>
    <td></td>
    <td>Third Column</td>
  </tr>
</table>

Code Explained:

The first CSS rule checks for empty td's and give them a width of 50px then the second rule give the padding of top and bottom to all the td's.

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