Increasing Pressure over Bingo tax
7th January, 2008
An article in the Financial Times newspaper has reported that that Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is coming under increasing pressure to cut taxes on the UK Bingo industry. Sustained lobbying from the two largest operators in the UK, Rank and Gala Coral, has brought the issue into the limelight with more backing. The campaign has now secured the support of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which is expected to lead the tax reforms in its new budget submission.
Neil Goulden chief executive at Gala Coral, said: “The message we are giving the chancellor and the prime minister is ‘if you give us the same tax treatment as other gambling industries, it will be an investment that will drive up admissions’.”
The government is thought to believe that the bingo industry has a more endemic problem, not rectifiable just by changing the tax structure.
