Chancellor slashes bingo tax
In good news for Bingo enthusiasts the chancellor has announced a cut in tax on the profits of Bingo halls from 20 per cent to 10 per cent, five per cent lower than other forms of gambling.
The chancellor gave credit to the campaign waged to cut the tax by Tory MP Robert Halfon.
In January, the Bingo Association says that taxes on the game are excessive compared to competitors in the gambling industry and are contributing to the rapid decline of bingo clubs.
A cross party group of 54 MPs were backing campaigners calls for tax cuts on the game. The number of clubs has fallen by a third, from nearly 600 in 2005 to less than 400 in 2014.
Excessive taxation may have been responsible for the significant loss of jobs in the bingo industry, with Gambling Commission figures showing the number of people employed in the sector down from 17,822 in financial year 2010-11 to 16,048 in 2012-13.
Read our full summary of the budget here.