The petition going around against the bingo tax was submitted via the 10 Downing Street website in September with more than 2,500 signatures of indignant bingo players.  The government has finally issued their response to that petition in their typical double speak.

“The government continues to recognize the important social role played by bingo clubs in many communities.  Budget 2009 introduced a package of reforms intended to simplify the bingo tax regime, continuing a process of reform that began in 2003.  Bingo participation fees became VAT exempt and bingo duty was increased to 22%.  The bingo industry had been campaigning for some time for VAT exemption on bingo participation fees and the bingo duty increase should not be seen in isolation”.

Basically, what the government is telling us is what did we expect?  Bingo operators wanted the VAT gone and now it is.  Clearly the government wasn’t going to lose anything on the deal so they raised the tax to compensate for it.  It almost sounds like they are considering the VAT exemption to be a favour to the industry, doesn’t it?

Since that budget of April 2009, we are seeing roughly four bingo clubs closing down every month.  This is a very serious situation for UK bingo that the government clearly is doing their best to ignore.

The full text of the government response is far too long to put into a blog post but you can find the entire text posted at the 10 Downing Street website, if you wish.