Taking No Hostages: The POC Tax Strikes Again

Hello Roomies!

Today we here at Two Little Fleas would like to take the opportunity to get up on our soapbox because there are some big changes being made in the bingo world— not all of them good, and some of them downright scary. No this isn’t an article about Halloween… it’s about the upcoming changes to UK Tax laws; the dreaded point of consumption (POC) tax.

Let’s start with the good- there a lot of bingo sites trying to make the most of player acquisition bonuses before the POC tax rears its ugly head. For this reason we are seeing bonuses of 1000% from Fierce (split into three), 750% Treasure Bingo (split into three) and 500% from Charity Bingo (on first deposits only— for a limited time). Other Bingo sites are choosing to play it safe and offer lower bonus and reload rewards, instead opting to give away untaxable items such as free spins or free tickets. Of course another potential benefit of this POC tax is the money it will raise for the UK government- an estimated £300,000,000- a much needed cash boost to the economy. But as always when someone gains money, someone else loses it. The question is, can the online bingo community survive such a loss?

We’ve talked before about how this upcoming law change will affect bingo sites, and how that in turn will affect bingo players; now it’s time to talk about how this will affect affiliates. If you didn’t know, affiliates are sites that provide links to every bingo site and are paid by the bingo sites for the people who use those links and start playing there. Two Little Fleas, Bingo Port, Oh My Bingo and LoQuax are just a few of the sites that earn this way.

Facts and Figures behind the Hysteria

So how will the POC law affect them? Well, companies like William Hill estimate that this will take £60,000,000-£70,000,000 off of their bottom line and have already made between £15,000,000 and £20,000,000 worth of cuts in order to absorb the impact. Another example is that Paddy Power estimated that of their income in 2013, they would have lost £37,000,000 in paying the tax.

Therefore you have to ask— where will these bingo sites be cutting the budget in order to stay solvent? Obviously it’s important that this has as little impact as possible on their players to avoid losing those players to their competitors. Then obviously the first place they will look to trim the excess from is the money they pay their affiliates.

Of course a cut in pay is not the only aspect that affiliates should be wary of. The gambling license board have made it clear that any affiliate pushing links to non-UK licensed sites to UK players will be punished severely. With such money troubles as these will we be seeing the amount of bingo review sites dwindle?

Don’t Panic…yet!

Two Little fleas would love to hear your opinion- let us know in the comments what YOU think about this issue and how you feel it will affect the online bingo community as a whole.