Its fair to say that bingo hall have had a tough time of it over the past few years, especially where the gambling taxes are concerned.
Current taxing laws require the licence bingo operators to pay double that of what other gambling types of establishments have to. This is definately hurting the industry, especially while the economy is so volatile.
Halls around the whole of the country are required to pay VAT at a rate of 17.5%
However they also are required to pay a gross profit tax of a whopping 15%.
The UK’s gambling industry is very much regulated, gambling licences help the government control how and where ambling takes place, this protects their customers.
It has however come to light recently that bingo is singled out for unfair taxation levels under the current UK legislation.
When taxation levels are applied, this means that the bingo industry is effectively paying tax at a rate of a shocking 28.2%!
The unfairness comes when knowing that NO other type of gambling industry in the UK is required to pay such a high level of taxation; in fact they pay on average around 15%, which is a massive difference.
Many of the industries players do believe that the double standard played a very large part in the closure of many of the halls in England, Scotland and Wales during the past year.
At least someone is trying to do something about it, a spokesman for the SNP who is also a member of parliament, has written a letter to the treasury minister demanding an end to the unfair double standard, which is in turn destroying the UK bingo industry.
The UK laws were overhauled in there draft form in the year of 2003 and the bill was then passed into law in 2005.
While the law was a vast improvement over its predecessor, unfortunately the double taxation for the industry stayed.
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