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UK bingo industry wants fair play

11th June 2013 Print
Bingo

There’s something of a quiet revolution happening in the world of Bingo in the UK. For generations of Bingo players, the Bingo Hall was the traditional gathering point one or two nights a week where ladies of a certain age would gather in their millions across the country in smoke-filled rooms and get their “eyes down”.

Traditional Bingo took place mainly in the northern industrial towns of England and in seaside resorts and peaked during the 1970s in player numbers. Since then, the game has been in gradual decline in its traditional format but has, of course, staged a big resurgence online with record numbers of us now setting our “eyes down” on the PC and (increasingly…) mobile devices.

The online boom has done nothing to help the traditional Bingo halls fight back. The plain truth is that the current generation of players doesn’t want to gather in one place – preferring to play from the comfort of their own homes, or whilst travelling etc., and often whilst doing other things at the same time. 

This is reflected in statistical analysis; research by Mintel and others has shown that the main online Bingo audience today is still predominantly female – but now in the 18-45 age group. Most of today’s online players weren’t even born when the Bingo Hals of yesteryear were at their peak.

But now the UK Bingo industry has cried “foul” given what it perceives to be the unfair tax regime it is facing at the hands of the UK Government. Last month, an all-party Parliamentary Bingo Group convened to talk over the issues facing the Bingo industry. The group’s membership included 19 Members of Parliament and 48 members of the UKs Bingo Association.

The Association works with Bingo Hall operators / owners and lobbies government policy-makers, Bingo industry regulators and others on the clubs’ behalves. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Association would now like to see a more equitable tax regime which puts Bingo Halls on the same level as the UK’s bookmakers. Currently, Bingo operators pay tax at a rate of 20% of gross profits, whilst for all other forms of gambling (including online Bingo providers and bookmakers etc.) taxes on gross profits are set at 15%. The Bingo Association believes that a level policy would actually increase the tax revenues from the Halls and Clubs. 

The UK Government’s Minister for Sport and Gambling has accepted the importance of the more traditional forms of Bingo in some communities and feels its role should be recognised. So perhaps the Halls will see a fairer tax regime soon and this will help stem the flow; currently, the old Bingo Halls are closing in the UK at an average rate of one per month?

Maybe; but it’s difficult to see the old-fashioned Halls staging a real comeback in the modern online / virtual age – particularly as players ply increasingly on mobiles. But life does have a way of surprising us…

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