Gala Bingo on Job Cutting Mission
To stay afloat and try to keep their company viable it looks like Gala Bingo once again within just a few months will be on a job axing mission to cut much needed costs within their organisation. Gala Bingo are currently in dept to the tune of a draw dropping £2.7 billion pounds, in June this year they closed down five of their UK land based bingo clubs and now it looks like hundreds more jobs could be lost in the middle management sector of their bingo division.
The Mirror online broke this grim news on Friday, which will probably leave their employees in turmoil until they find out just who will be axed. At present Gala Bingo have around 148 UK bingo clubs still in operation and they are looking to lose a number of managers throughout their bingo clubs. Exactly how many jobs will be lost yet is still unclear, but it could run into the hundreds.
‘Your Money’ posted a copy of a memo which was sent out to Gala Bingo employees which read “As you are aware, the bingo industry has, over the past two years, faced an unprecedented level of decline due to the impact of the smoking ban and punitive legislative change. As a result the company has reviewed every aspect of its business and a key part of this is the way in which our clubs are structured to meet the challenge.”
In the April 2009 budget, MP darling once again delivered a far from ‘darling’ of a budget for the UK bingo industry. In fact what he gave in one hand (abolishing the absurd double taxation law, buy taking away VAT) he took back in the other by hiking up bingo duty from 15% to 22%, even though other gaming sectors like casinos and sports betting and online bingo sites still remained at the 15% threshold.
The rise in bingo duty when it comes into play will have a huge impact on the bingo industry because even the smaller bingo clubs which fell under the radar of the double taxation law will not be able to outrun having to pay a whopping 22% bingo duty tax. Land based bingo clubs are already struggling in this economic climate, so the rise in bingo duty will no doubt lead to the loss of even more UK jobs.
