The UK Bingo Association has got well and truly behind the bingo industry by launching their own advertising campaign ‘Backing Bingo’.  The bingo association are asking bingo fans to join their campaign to try and persuade the Government to re-set bingo tax duty back to 15% and therefore help to prevent even more closures of land based bingo clubs. A prediction has already been made that around 100 bingo clubs could close their doors for the last time due to this recent hike in tax and the race is now on to try and put a stop to this. 

There are three ways in which people can help back bingo through the bingo association, one is to put their name to a petition that has been set up on the 10 Downing Street website, two is to join the facebook back bingo group and three is to write to your local MP.

The Bingo Association has provided an easy link to their backing bingo campaign through their online website and this gives you detailed information on the necessary action to take.

Current Gaming Taxation Laws

• Bingo (in a licensed club) is now taxed at 22% - (which was increased from 15% in the Budget)
• Online Bingo 15% 
• Online Casino & poker 15% 
• Sports betting (betting shops) 15% 
• Betting Exchanges 15% 
• Football Pools 15%

Lots of MP’s are backing bingo, but alarming one MP tried to justify the UK Governments action with regards to the tax increase on bingo this week, which is pretty pathetic really as the MP in question was trying to justly something that just cannot be justified whatever way you look at it. Some MP’s might come out with some quick witting spill, but when you read between the lines of it they are talking a load of old rubbish.

The only thing the bingo industry are asking is that the tax they pay is brought back in line with other gaming sectors. The game of online bingo pays 15%, so what makes the game of land based bingo so different that it is being made to pay 22%? Bingo is bingo......it may now come in many shapes and forms, but ultimately it is a game of luck and chance where cash prizes can be won through randomly generated numbers.

The question on everyone’s lips is..... why is the bingo industry being targeted so aggressively by the Government? Maybe they need even more tax payers money to get their expenses claims paid, who knows for sure what their reasoning is in this case because from where I stand they don’t have an argument!