The secretary to the Treasury Sarah McCarthy Fry has said that full consideration was given to the bingo industry before the recent tax changes to bingo. In a letter to a former treasury minister Yvette Cooper, Sarah McCarthy-Fry has stated that she is confident the industry is better off under the new  changes and blames the decline on the industry due to the change in tastes and competition from other areas in the leisure sector.

Mr Dave Holt representing the Ritz Bingo club in Castleford had a meeting with Yvette Cooper who worked in the Treasury at the time the new tax change was implemented and highlighted an area that may have been overlooked when deciding on the new tax regime. Miss Cooper had raised concerns with the new treasury that the Prize bingo games that were previously exempt on VAT may not have been considered and this tax has just been raised to 22 percent along with the other games and may be what is deemed as an unintended consequence.

Mr Holt remained confident that the Treasury would reconsider the position and would consider reducing the tax by a around 4 percent to at least secure the future of the struggling clubs and continue the talks of bringing the industry in line with other gaming tax. In a twist, oddly the new Secretary to the Treasury Sarah McCarthy Fry wrote to Yvette Cooper stating that the non Vatable prize bingo income had been taken into account so no unintended consequence had occurred.

Meanwhile many bingo clubs in the UK are continuing to close, bingo remains the softest form of gaming taxed to the highest rate. The Government will not achieve anything in forcing the industry to pay over exuberent taxes and forcing these closures. The Government can easily make 15 percent extra tax from clubs for many years to come. Why hit the clubs for 22 percent now and then have nothing in the future from an industry that will be forced into extinction.