The UK government has long been urged to remove the value-added taxes it has placed on bingo games. However one of the constituents of Exchequer Alistair Darling has given a boost to this campaign.

A bingo caller at Darling’s Mecca club of Edinburgh, James Cook had sent a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s website, asking for British bingo to be saved by ending the double taxation the bingo industry faces.

Companies like Gala Coral Group and Rank Group who owns Mecca complain that they have to pay a 15% tax in addition to VAT of 17.5%. This has led to the closure of ninety clubs in the past two years.

It is rumored that Darling may discuss gaming duties in his annual budget statement scheduled for March 12. Cook had mentioned in his email that if the government did not abolish VAT on bingo in the forthcoming budget, more bingo clubs will have to close down. So far, this petition has received 903 signatures.

With this closure, not only will many communities of people be deprived of a social deviation, British taxpayers will be at a loss with the loss of jobs, local business rates, other taxes and capital investment.

Campaigns have been going on since the past five years to persuade the government to ease taxation on the industry saying that bingo is different from other forms of gambling as it is considered to be more of a social event and time pass for many people. In fact, to many old people, bingo is the only entertainment they have in a day!

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