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The bingo industry got some good news in last week’s pre-tax budget report, which should give some hope to the bingo fighting brigade who have lobbied the UK government over recent months. In the pre-tax budget, Alistair Darling announced a 2% reduction on bingo tax, taking tax back down from 22% to 20%.........however, this does still leave a 5% hike on what bingo operators had to pay before the April 2009 budget, so it does somewhat still leave a sour taste in your mouth.

Mecca Bingo did welcome the reduction on Bingo tax, as it will result in saving them around £2.5 million pounds each year, however they do also seem to be a bit miffed as to why the game of bingo is still being taxed higher than other gaming operators.

Ian Burke, chief executive of Mecca Bingo (Rank Group, said: “Today’s announcement is a step in the right direction. However, it is still not clear why Britain’s bingo clubs should be subject to a higher tax rate than that applied to other forms of gaming and betting.”

Online bingo for instance only has to pay 15% tax, so why is it that land based bingo clubs will now have to pay 20% tax. Bingo is bingo is it not, whatever way you look at it? Whether it is played online or offline, we believe all gaming products should be taxed at the same rate and not one rule for one and another rule for others.

Bingo has been hit very hard over recent years, there has been a shift as to how the game is played and this has largely been down to the phenomenal success of online bingo. The smoking ban in all public places as played its part in the decline of land based bingo clubs, as has the tax hike and gaming machine law changes.

We can only hope that the 2% reduction in bingo tax will be enough to stop the decline of more UK bingo clubs................but only time will tell on this one. At least the UK government have acknowledge that bingo operators are in need of some help and took at least a small step to providing this.