"Darling" of a Budget for Bingo?

I don't usually take an interest in the budget but this year, but after reading about the Save Our Bingo campaign, I watched in the vain hope something would give.

The industry as a whole has suffered at the hands of the smoking ban and this double taxation stands to cripple it. The figures being banded about are that as many as 1 in 5 land bingo halls now stand to close. Many independant bingo clubs, although currently making a loss, had stayed open in the hope that Alistair Darling would take note of the industry's annoyance at being the only sector to have the double taxation imposed.

Gala Coral have already closed more than 40 clubs in the last 14 months and currently 20 of it's 160 clubs are "at risk".

Paul Talboys, from The Bingo Association went on to say "For each club that closes, the exchequer loses around £700,000 per year in revenue across a wide range of taxes"