Darling Cuts Bingo Tax!
10th December, 2009
The UK gaming industry has given a rather guarded welcome to the bingo duty cut which was included in the chancellor’s pre budget report yesterday.
The rank group who own Mecca Bingo said that the change in tax rates should boost its operating profit by £2.5m per year. However, it is still argued that the reduction should have been larger.
"Today's announcement is a step in the right direction. However, it is still not clear why Britain's bingo clubs should be subject to a higher tax rate than that applied to other forms of gaming and betting," said Ian Burke, chief executive of Rank.
Alistair Darling told MPs that duty on licensed bingo clubs would drop from 22% to 20% at next year’s budget. The drop should help the industry which has been hit hard in recent years by the smoking ban and poor economic climate.
Prior to the 2009 budget, bingo was taxed at 15% which continues to be the levy for football pools, betting shops and online bingo.
The Bingo Association previously protested about the increase to 22% from 15% and said, "The fight continues to get bingo back to the 15% rate".
The cut in bingo duty won the largest cheers from the pre budget report. However, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable dubbed the event as, ‘a good budget for bingo and boilers but not much else’.
Shares in Rank were up nearly 3% yesterday afternoon.
By Faye
