The United Kingdom may be changing its laws on gambling taxation. This may inadvertently impact other forms of gaming.
In the upcoming budget, there have been suggestions that the United Kingdom may have to raise its taxes on gambling. There has been much speculation regarding the impact that it could have on the industry.
Whole sporting associations have held strikes, with many lobbying the government on planned changes. Yet while betting and casinos have been the main topic of conversation, very little has been said about the UK’s other forms of gaming and the possible impact.
Changes to Taxation in the UK
The proposed tax changes are being introduced to shore up a budget deficit. It is expected that this will raise up to £3.2 billion in revenue. This could see sports betting go from a 15% levy to 30%. What is crucial, however, is that slots will go from 20% to 50%.
Originally, the proposals were suggested by the Institute for Public Policy Research. This is an independent charity that aims to work towards a fairer, greener, and more prosperous society.
Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister, is one person who has lent his voice to this cause, believing the raise could be used to alleviate benefit caps.
The United Kingdom already has some of the strictest regulations regarding online wagering and casino gaming. These range from stringent regulatory concerns to the implementation of programmes like Gamstop.
These heavy regulatory burdens are often passed onto consumers, leading many to hunt out casinos that do not employ these systems.
In many ways, these casinos can provide more for consumers. You can find a list of casinos that don’t use Gamstop at https://non.gamstop-casino.co.uk/. They will provide the same choice of table games and slot machines, but with easier sign-up access.
Very often, they are also able to offer bigger bonuses as a result and more payment methods. These can include methods such as cryptocurrency, and you can even benefit from faster pay-outs.
The Impact on Bingo Halls
Miles Baron is the Chief Executive of the Bingo Association. He has warned that while it may not impact games of bingo directly, it will impact slot games. They’re known to help subsidise bingo games in clubs, which keeps these halls open and visitors flowing in.
Links between bingo clubs and slot games have been growing for some time, particularly online. Most of the UK’s most well-known operators run their physical halls alongside online offerings.
Not only can you find information about your local bingo halls there, you can also play online games and try other forms of entertainment, like slots.
These titles bring in £3.6 billion in gross gambling duty to the UK each year, so they are an obvious boost for their operators and the government.
Bingo halls across the United Kingdom have undergone many changes over the years, and this may be the next evolution. Many of the grand, art deco buildings they are housed in were once cinemas built in the twenties and thirties.
When television arrived and cinema patrons diminished, bingo entered the fray and took up residence. Today, it is estimated that bingo halls across the UK make around £35 million in profit.
In the sixties, many of them doubled up as both live music venues and bingo halls. A large number of spaces are reverting to this purpose, being rebuilt for a booming live music, comedy, and theatre sector.
Buildings such as the Stockton Globe have been totally refurbished and are bringing much-needed revenue to small towns.
Could This Impact Console and PC Gaming?
The rise in gambling taxation is unlikely to have a direct impact on console and PC game development. Without any fundamental gambling components in common, the revenue would not be impacted. They also have quite distinct customer bases that do not normally cross over.
An indirect consequence of this may be some developers switching to other genres, but this would be a long-term change.
With increased regulations, many may see it more profitable to concentrate on other markets. Casual gaming is now a large part of the £7.0bn gaming sector, and many could easily switch to different revenue models, such as free-to-play games.
What would really impact the console gaming industry would be a similar tax on lootboxes and in-game asset sales. These are increasingly being linked to gambling, despite gaming companies’ best efforts to differentiate them.
A survey of 1102 individuals in the publication Science Direct reported that 19.87% of them found lootboxes had gateway effects into gambling. Advice given to the UK Gambling Commission also suggested a link between lootbox purchasing and problem gambling in teenagers was a moderate to large issue.
Many games now follow a free-to-play model and use lootboxes and in-game purchases as a revenue model. Large taxation on these, or increased regulation, could hit this sector hard. For many gamers, this may not be a bad thing.
They have been increasingly criticized within the gaming community as being a method for play-to-play, even within games that need to be purchased first.
