PBR05: Gambling tax regime opened to consultation

Government has launched a consultation to evaluate whether the changes to the tax regime for bingo taxation have brought the savings sought.

In 2003 the tax system for bingo duty was simplified, removing the need to calculate added prize money charges and moved the duty calculation from a weekly to monthly.

The change would have created one-off transitional costs, resulting from the need to train staff and change accounting systems, but overall the change would reduce costs.

The government is looking into to whether these savings have been realised and will run the consultation until February 2006.