Please gamble responsibly.
by Penny Walker
The biggest bingo news in the press at the moment is Alistair Darling�s Pre-budget report which announced that bingo tax would be cut from 22% to 20%. The fact that Gala Bingo and other organizations have been lobbying for bingo to be taxed at the same level as hard gambling activities seems to have had very little effect in my opinion. To me this just looks like tokenism used to mark the last budget in power that the New Labour will have.
Although this announcement apparently got one of the biggest reactions from opposition benches, we are not sure whether the reaction was for, against or sheer disgust. This tax cut is being received very cautiously by the bingo industry and I am sure we will hear what Gala Bingo thinks about it soon enough.
This move only undoes the Chancellors bingo tax hike of two years ago by one third and will this actually make any difference to the crisis situation much of the UK bingo industry finds itself in? In terms of damage control, I may be a pessimist, but I don�t think this 2% cut will have that much effect, the industry has been lobbying for a 7% cut to match the same tax as other gambling activities have to pay. I am no political analyst, but logic makes sense to me and I cannot fathom for a moment why Bingo halls should be in a higher tax bracket than hard gambling casinos? Does anyone out there know what the justification for this is?
I have a feeling that the link to www.backbingo.com is going to remain up at the Gala Bingo site and that the momentum for lobbying to have this tax lowered will not stop with what appears to be a rather feeble and token announcement.