Bingo tax cut is not enough

14th December 2009 9:09 AM

The rate of tax that has applied to land based bingo halls and online bingo sites has been a controversial for many months now. When the Government increased the bingo taxation to 22% many felt it would only add to the struggle that land based halls were facing and protests were sparked by the news all over the country. The news last week that Alistair Darling had chosen to do a u-turn of sorts, by dropping the rate to 20% was hoped to be good news for the bingo operators. However, it seems that the bingo tax cut is not enough.

Bingo operators such as Mecca Bingo and Gala Bingo who also operate online bingo sites, have been quite vocal about the struggle that they face as have many of the smaller operators. Many of the operators who also offer land based bingo and operate bingo sites, have been concentrating their efforts on their bingo sites as these were proving more successful. However, the fact that bingo sites are more successful than halls doesn’t mean that the halls should be left to struggle and whether bingo sites are successful or not, a rate of taxation at 20% when other forms are gambling and gaming are taxed at 15% certainly doesn’t seem fair.

Since the announcement of the tax cut we have been looking at various sources to try and see how the operators of bingo sites and halls felt about the recent announcement, and it seems that various organisations that are involved with the operation of online bingo sites and halls are not happy at all with the fact that tax is not falling in line with other forms of gambling.

A 2% cut will obviously make a huge saving for bingo sites and halls alike and a very welcome one for the halls. But a further 5% reduction, bringing bingo in line with other gaming, could prove to be the saving grace for the ailing halls.

Written by Hannah Jones

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