I have been to Harlow Bingo Club, in Terminus Street, a few times now, including once with Shadow Business Minister Mark Prisk MP (see picture on the right). It really is a special place and incredibly popular with local residents. Would you believe, the Bingo Club has 42,000 members from Harlow and the surrounding areas? I am not suprised at all. Manager Bernie Dullaghan and the Staff provide an amazing service, and its become a real community institution, patronised by old and young alike.
We are lucky to have a bingo club, as across the country, many clubs have closed, partly because of the smoking ban, but also because Bingo clubs have to pay extra taxation to the government.
For some bizarre reason, the British bingo industry continues to be threatened by the grossly unfair system of ‘double taxation’. Current UK tax rules dictate that bingo revenues are subject to the payment of both 17.5% value added tax and 15% gross profits tax. No other form of gambling or leisure industry in the UK is subject to a comparable regime. This is despite the fact that bingo is widely regarded as the softest form of gambling.
Double taxation was a contributory factor in the closure of 37 bingo clubs in Great Britain in 2007 and many more will close if it is not reformed.
Unless the Government reforms bingo taxation, clubs like the excellent Mecca bingo here in Harlow are in danger of closure. This has a direct implication for the people who work in the club, who will be left unemployed, the thousands of customers (principally women and a large number of elderly people), who will suffer the loss of an important social amenity and hardworking British taxpayers, who will be left to foot the bill for the loss of bingo's substantial contribution to the economy.
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