Online Bingo Thrives and Land Based Bingo Gets Taxed

If you are no stranger to online gambling, you've probably noticed the increasing presence of internet bingo. An online casino you call home may very well be offering bingo. Heck - you might have joined a bingo room yourself. You might even be playing bingo right this very second! (It's definitely feasible considering the hands-off nature of the best bingo software platforms out there)

Online play bingo has certainly become one of the fasting growing sectors of the online gambling industry. With self-standing bingo rooms now giving direct competition to leading online casinos, many of these casinos are now beginning to offer their very own bingo games or sister bingo sites. Similar to the way that poker began taking off, as more people begin to get hooked by bingo, the more money there is floating around, and the larger the tournaments.

I don't want to go into too much detail about how online bingo has managed to thrive, because the fact of the matter is that this could very well fizzle out thanks to the UK. Good'ol Mother England is a curious phenomenon when it comes to bingo, because on the one hand she has been largely responsible for fostering the growth of bingo online, while on the other, she has made it increasingly tougher for land-based free bingo operations to thrive. And while I personally don't care that much for brick 'n mortar bingo halls, I don't think it's fair that the land-based industry shouldn't be given the chance to thrive while online bingo is doing so well.

Unbeknownst to most gamers, Britain imposes double taxation on bingo operations - subjecting them to pay a 17.5% value added tax and a15% gross profits tax. That's a 32.5% tax if you do the math. And I don't care how much money you're making, nobody should have to pay that much in taxes. This tax policy was directly responsible for helping shut down some 37 UK bingo clubs during 2007 alone, and it will certainly play a hand in shutting down more if it isn't revised.

Well, this is precisely what a campaign made up of some the heavy hitters in the bingo industry are currently trying to do. Powerhouses like the Rank Group, are trying to urge members of Parliament to make a change in how bingo operations are taxed. Although the British government has thus far abstained from showing any sympathy, this could very well change in the near future now that the Scottish National Party is calling for the abolition of the double taxation law. Rank Group CEO, Ian Burke, called it a "real breakthrough". Following the smoking ban, which has also contributed to a loss in business, a "breakthrough" is exactly what the brick 'n mortar bingo industry needs.

Source: http://onlinecasinosuite.com/casino-news

Government Rejects Cut In UK Bingo Hall Tax

The severe economic climate is not set to improve for Bingo Halls across the UK, who had hoped that the government might relent after a series of strong complaints about the extra VAT imposed on the land-based UK Bingo industry.

Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming had taken up the cause of UK Bingo Halls, asking for the extra VAT be scrapped, as the bingo online industry overall tax rates amount to 32% in comparison to other sectors of the gambling industry with a much lower rate of just 15%.

As reported by the BBC today, the government has decided that the VAT rate for the Bingo industry will remain the same, and does not accept that the higher VAT rate is the root cause of the current problems faced by the Bingo industry as a whole.

Mr Hemming said that scrapping VAT for the internet bingo industry would only cost the government about £10 million, and that more than 100 Bingo Halls had closed over the last six years claiming more than 3,500 job losses. He also claimed that ministers 'had it in' for the industry and it's predominantly working-class members.

Secretary to the Exchequer, Angela Eagle, ruled that altering the VAT rate for the Bingo industry would not solve any problems, and claimed that the actual tax rate for the industry stands at 25% not the 32% as claimed by Mr Hemming.

Ms Eagle said that other sectors of the gambling industry were subject to different forms of taxation, and that the online bingo sector is subject to the average level of taxation across most gambling forms.

Source: http://bingostreet.com/