Land-based Bingo Halls Still Struggling
3rd December, 2007
According to a report last Friday, Mike Lowe, operations manager at Premier Bingo has stated the industry faces an gray future if the government doesn’t do something quickly about UK taxation policy. Employees at Premier Bingo, along with countless other bingo halls are more than concerned about their own job security.
Lowe believes a fairer tax system is imperative for the survival of land-based bingo halls, which have already taken a huge profit loss thanks to the smoking ban and the explosion of the online bingo industry. Lowe has approached the Scottish Parliament with a petition which urges Parliament to present the issues to the UK Government and call for a tax system which parallels the other chapters of the UK’s gambling industry (i.e. poker and sportsbetting).
Lowe is referring to the double taxation factor that other gambling sections are not subjected to. “We pay VAT and Gross Profits Tax (GPT),” says Lowe. “It’s an unfair taxation system so what we’re asking is to give us some VAT relief and this would go some of the way to providing bingo operators with some breathing space.”
Do you agree with Mike Lowe that the double taxation is unfair? Or do you simply believe we must accept that we are moving towards an online bingo world? Tell us what you think in our bingo forum!
