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How Will the 2010 UK Elections Affect Internet Bingo?
The 2010 elections in the UK brought about a partial victory for the Conservative Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown tendered his resignation ending 13 years of Labour rule and paving the way for David Cameron to become Prime Minister. The Conservatives are still twenty seats short of the 326 seats needed for a majority. The gaming industry including the internet bingo industry is waiting for the mini manifesto promised to the gaming industry. Will the new Conservative government be better for online bingo? No one seems to know for sure.
Traditionally Conservatives have viewed gaming as an industry that needs to be controlled by limiting supply and marketing efforts and tight regulation and taxation. The Labour government has not been good for the bingo industry as a whole. The smoking ban and high levels of taxation crippled the land based bingo industry resulting in thousands of job losses. Earlier in 2010 the Labour government lowered the bingo tax a paltry 2% but the industry remains the most highly taxed in the gambling sector. Conservatives have remained silent about their intentions towards the bingo industry. At a Bingo Association meeting a shadow minister from the Tories said that the bingo tax is unfair and that the issue will be addressed when the time is right.
Some in the internet bingo industry fear that the new government could see the lucrative internet bingo market as a further source of tax revenue and could possibly raise taxes on internet bingo companies operating in the UK. Further taxation could easily drive internet bingo providers offshore resulting in a drop in tax revenue from the industry. Some commentators believe that the Labour party views the bingo sector as “a target for taxation” while the Liberal Democrats recognize the importance of bingo as a social activity.
Writing for the bingo oriented website Bingo Supermarket, author Jayne Wilson called for the online and land based bingo industries to join forces and stated, “[We] 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.” Experience has shown that by and large the government views the bingo and gaming industry as a handy source for tax revenue. While a hung Parliament may be bad for the country as a whole it could turn out well for the internet bingo industry.