Latest bingo news is not looking good. Amidst tough times for the bingo industry the government delta bother blow in their recent budget, despite belief that the government was sympathetic towards the industry.

The government has brought in partial exemption for bingo clubs yet it has stopped VAT reclaims which has previously been so beneficial to the industry to help reduce there large tax burden.

GPT meanwhile has seen an almost 50% increase to 22% from 15%. Some in the bingo industry are seeing this as an even heavier tax burden laid onto to struggling sector.

Many bingo games, specifically those involving cash for prizes, were originally tax exempt, under new government proposals however they will see there current tax levels rise from 15% to 22%. It was also revealed on Wednesday that VAT will be exempt from bingo rather than the zero rated that many had been hoping for. Leading bingo company Ranks chief executive Ian Burke said to the Daily Telegraph “I don’t understand what the UK land Bingo Industry has done to justify the government’s vindictiveness.”

The news of the tax increase spread quickly through the city and it traders. Shares in the Rank group tumbled by almost 14% after Alistair Darlings budget. The company has been predicting that the tax increase could see almost £6million wiped off its profits in the coming year while it could be as much as £9million annual in the future. As a result the company has had to scale down there pretax profit predictions, for 2009 the group are now predicting profits of £34million compared to £40.3million previously, while in 2010 forecasts are down to £32.5million from an expected £41million

Online bingo sector seems to have been much more fortunate that its offline counterpart. This has been largely due to the fact that many online operators are based outside of the UK so they get to avoid the tax burden. Those Online bingo operators who are in the UK have predicted an extra 7% of there income will go in the treasury coffers.