Former Home Secretary Joins Bingo Cause

Tagged as: Mecca Bingo | by Hollie Sanders

The former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, has joined the fight against the Government to get VAT scrapped on bingo revenues. The former heavyweight in Tony Blair’s cabinet took to the floor as bingo caller at the All Saints Green Mecca Bingo Club and bellowed out the numbers during a game at the club that was used as a photo opportunity to promote the stance that the tax man is harming bingo clubs and causing closures countrywide.

It is felt that the double taxation is placing a vital community service out of action in terms of its effect on bingo. The Mecca Bingo at All Saints Green has a membership of 26,000 bingo players, most of whom are women over the age of 50 whose only leisure pursuit is to play bingo with their friends over a cup of tea. These are not hardened gamblers.

Charles Clarke addressed players at the bingo club and said that he was going to raise the issue ahead of the next budget, he had seen the figures, and for example, the All Saints Mecca Bingo Club had seen a 15% drop in business since the smoking ban, so with the playing field levelled for the taxation issue, bingo clubs would at least have that additional revenue to make up for their losses since the smoking ban.