Sneaking in on Friday, just as everyone else was rushing off to seaside for the Bank Holiday weekend, The Times carried a story about the Government’s response to the calls from the Bingo industry to remove the VAT burden on Bingo. The Government have effectively robbed the Bingo industry of its most cherished and firmly clutched straw, announcing the it would not be removing VAT from Bingo. This will come as a pretty stinging blow to the Bingo Association in the light of their recent campaign to make this happen.
The Government had this to say, and I believe it’s quite a telling statement. “Our assessment remains that tax is not at the root of the bingo industry’s problems and we do not believe there is a tax solution.” It kind of echoes what I’ve said here on a number of occasions. In a way this announcement and situation is a good thing for the industry. Instead of playing the victim card and wasting its energy complaining and blaming outside forces, it may look to developing and innovating its own business.
Had VAT been abolished, it may not have helped some of the inherent problems the business needs to address. Diversifying, innovating, capturing new audiences and more, so far the retail industry has struggled to get over its own ingrained ideas about what it should be and what it should do. Now that this potential sticking plaster is no longer an option, the industry needs to get the bit between its teeth and get brainstorming, developing new markets and looking at changing what it does without veering to far from its core business. Not an easy task I realise, but one that remains at the forefront of what the industry needs to do.
