The Bingo industry will be listening to the budget tomorrow and Bingo Supermarket will be analyzing how the new measures will impact local bingo clubs up and down the UK

Already it is widely anticipated that an increase on VAT and National Insurance contributions will be brought in and this will have an impact to the bottom line as costs will soar.  At least this time providing gaming duty is left alone, the impact of tax increases will be on a par with most industries in the UK.

As the budget is intended to raise more revenue for the Government, the gaming industry is not expecting any tax cuts whilst some are speculating that this could be an opportunity to realign the gaming duty and bring Gross Profits Tax up to 20 percent for everyone including the bookmakers.

The increase in VAT could also cause problems for the larger bingo clubs that are currently renting and leasing their properties.  Since a large proportion of the income is non vatable and the machine income is also destined for GPT instead of VAT, the recoverable VAT from premises will drastically reduce whilst the amount paid on top will increase.

Online Bingo companies that offer their games to customers from off shore are not expected to see any significant changes tomorrow that will impact on their revenue streams, however the amount of taxation that is being lost abroad is certainly not going unnoticed by the Government and new legislation is expected to be announced shortly to increase the tax burden on the off shore online gaming companies.  It is likely that companies operating off shore will face financial penalties rather than offering incentives for operators to operate in the jurisdiction of the UK.