Despite numerous pleas from bingo representatives, the government used whip support to force through a finance bill that showed a complete disregard for the bingo industry and may now force bingo clubs to close and leave in particular small vulnerable communities without a much needed and important facility. Lost bingo clubs will inevitably cause a drain on the state whilst the government had the

opportunity to make amends that were put forward by their own party.

The bingo industry has quite rightly argued that anything above 15 percent is unfair and just because the government have taken advantage of the industry for many years they should not be entitled to continue. Bingo chiefs are appalled at the way they have been treated. The Government's record on the bingo industry is not good when you consider they introduced the National Lottery that hit bingo club spending, they introduced the smoking ban that hit club attendances, they introduced a minimum wage that increased club costs, they brought in gambling reform that involved further bingo club expenses and retraining, they allowed online bingo to go off shore for bingo to compete against non tax payers. All of this was accepted by the industry and in return the Government have now hiked up the tax. Forgive the industry if it is feeling a little aggrieved by the Government's policies at this moment. The Government can change all this by just applying an equal tax rate.

The Government recently lost a court battle with Mecca Bingo over the industry paying VAT. The Government have already lost an appeal and another appeal is now pending and will probably be heard next year. The government are now attempting to take credit for the removal of VAT whilst plugging the gap with the bingo duty tax hike. The Treasury appear to be adamant that bingo should be taxed higher than any other form of gaming because that is the way it has always been. It became obvious during the debate that the government is basing its decision on choosing soft targets for tax as opposed to showing a fair balance. Most of the rational arguments came from the labour back benchers, independents, SNP and the Liberal Democrats. The number of conservative MPs that turned out to vote on the amendment would suggest that they are undecided on this issue.

Mr Holt representing a small number of independent bingo clubs stated "At least if you fix the rate to 15 percent and this does not repair the downturn in the industry, you can then say the industry only has itself to blame. In the grand scheme of things unlike banks and some other industries, the amount of money the bingo industry will immediately benefit from is quite small but significant for our survival, we are not asking to be bailed out and we will never do so, just apply a fair tax rate and we can continue to operate and the government will reap the benefits. A thriving bingo club paying 15 percent is much better than a struggling club paying 22 percent planning to close."

The only option left for the bingo industry is to hope the government will look carefully at the figures it has been presented with and reconsider this in the next budget whilst the industry continues to fight for its own survival.