Author: After a long year of falling revenues and closing halls, it seems that the UK bingo industry has been thrown a rope.
Hit hard by the smoking ban, the continuation of double taxation, and a rising interest in online bingo, many land-based bingo clubs have closed down in recent months. Many communities have lost their town’s hub of activity, and a cherished meeting place.
The latest credit crunch has also affected bingo halls, since most people have less money to spend and are generally being more careful with their cash. Of course, the economic climate could also work the other way, encouraging players to splash out on more bingo cards in the hope of winning a big prize. And with two recent winners taking home over a million pounds from a bingo night out, it’s surely worth a shot!
When the budget was announced, bingo bosses were hugely disappointed that the Chancellor decided not to make any changes in the taxation law for bingo, keeping the double taxation, which puts bingo halls at a disadvantage compared to casinos and poker rooms. While all gambling activities pay gaming duty at 15%, bingo clubs pay an additional VAT charge at 17.5%. The combination of the two is proving crippling for bingo, and seems blatantly unfair.
This week, the Sports Minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, spoke at the UK Bingo Association’s annual general meeting and said that he was aware of the difficulties faced by the industry and was willing to help. With the support of the Prime Minister, Sutcliffe is considering how best to help the ailing bingo scene. Clearly realizing the benefit of bingo to communities, the time has come to do something about it.
This announcement gave hope to many and even pushed up shares for the Rank group, one of the biggest in the bingo industry.
The bingo industry argues that, in contrast to casinos, bingo clubs are often seen as a community amenity and are a lifeline for older people who live alone and have few social outlets or ways of meeting people. They have asked the government to look at the community costs of losing more clubs, and to bolster the industry.
It remains to be seen exactly how the government plans to help out and industry insiders are holding their breath in the hope of a reprieve from the extra VAT charge, which could just save British bingo.
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