A decision on the future Government of Great Britain still lies in the balance amid rumours that the Liberal Democrats are leaning towards a coalition with the Conservatives.  What does this mean for Bingo?

It should be noted that politically speaking there is a clear gap between the retail bingo sector and the online sector as across the parties retail bingo is viewed more favourably since it forms an important community function although the unfair tax system would suggest otherwise.  At the recent annual Bingo Association, a shadow minister from the Conservatives did attend and show his support for the industry whilst the other two main parties failed to show.  However Liberal Democrats have reported on the social importance of bingo in the past unlike the Labour Party who see the bingo industry as a target for taxation.

Online Bingo is part of the online gaming sector and is viewed by the government as online gaming not really providing any distinctions between gaming groups.  This is backed up by the fact that online bingo profits are taxed at 15 percent gaming levy as opposed to the 20 percent for land based operators.  The Conservative party say they are committed to reviewing the balance of taxation when the time is right (Not sure what that is supposed to mean, a typical politician response that really says "We are committing ourselves to not making any commitments".)

Let's face the facts that since a government has not been decided upon and the countries finances are in the balance, the country is involved in wars in the far east, it would be safe to assume that bingo and indeed online gaming is not particularly high on the political agenda, so it would reasonable to assume that certainly the next year or so will be a status quo. 

Reform is always open for debate and brings about controversy which all parties will want to avoid, but it will still remain an easy target for taxation and with the financial troubles of the UK and the bad press it has received on the fact that retail bingo is taxed to unfairly, would it be unreasonable for the government to raise online gaming taxes to meet the same levels.  Before this can be considered, the Government need to work out how to prevent UK bingo and gaming operators from going off shore. Proposals for levying advertising has been discussed and it will only be a matter of time before legislation is brought in to tax the online gaming operators.

Prevention is better than cure, Bingo Supermarket would urge online bingo operators to form an alliance in the form of an online Bingo Association in order to tackle and raise awareness of potential issues that will come around once the Government find its feet and start looking for a way to bring in revenues to service the country's debts.