A bingo hall in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, is celebrating after raising over £1,800 for a cancer charity. The sum is much more than the £1,000 target that had been set by the bingo club and now Marie Curie Cancer Care will benefit as a result, the Ellesmere Port Pioneer reports.

Gary Shanks, manager of the location, said: “It’s inspiring to see how generous people have been, especially given how difficult this year has been financially for many.” It means that those who love to play bingo games have also had the opportunity to give cash to a good cause.

Marie Curie Cancer Care community fundraiser Siobhan Heffernan told the news provider it is great to see the efforts the bingo hall has went to help the charity out.

A robber who went on the run for four years after holding up a bingo hall at knifepoint, has finally been brought to justice.

Lynton King, 28, and his accomplice Leroy Hippolyte, burst into the Gala Bingo in The Broadway, Pitsea, wearing a crash helmet and yellow rubber gloves.

King threatened terrified staff with a blade, before telling them they would be stabbed if they didn’t open the safe.

The pair fled with almost £5,000 from the raid, which happened on October 15, 2006.

Hippolyte, then 30, was linked to the raid, after police found his fingerprints and DNA on the crash helmet, motorbike, a pair of rubber gloves and a hoodie, which were later found dumped in Grays.

He admitted the offence at Basildon Crown Court in April 2008 and was jailed for four years.

During that hearing, the court heard how King said staff would “get the knife in their backs if they did not get the safe open”.

But after King was arrested in March 2007, he failed to answer his bail and went on the run.

He was only arrested in April this year, three years later, by Metropolitan Police officers for an unrelated offence. He was then handed over to officers at Basildon.

King, of Caraway Close, Plaistow, was found guilty of robbery and failing to surrender to custody, after a trial at Basildon Crown Court. He was jailed for five years.

Following the case, investigating officer Det Con Darren Ward, of Basildon CID, welcomed the sentencing.

He said: “I am pleased King has finally been brought to justice, more than four years after committing this robbery.

“The staff at the time were terrified as King brandished a knife and threatened to use it.

“This sentence reflects the severity of the offence. I hope others considering making a criminal career through robbery realise, however long it takes, they will be brought to justice and put behind bars.”

Rank, the owners of Mecca Bingo and the Grosvenor Casino brands, which is amongst the largest providers of UK bingo games, are said to be celebrating today as they’ve reportedly received a £42.5 m refund from HM Customs and Revenue in relation to overpaid VAT. This consists of £16.1 million for VAT paid on main session bingo fees from 2004 to 2009, and £26.4 million for VAT paid on amusement machines from 2002 to 2005. The repayment follows a number of successful rulings, both in the High Court and the Tribunal Tax Chambers.

The first case Rank brought was in relation to the double taxation that bingo clubs were subject to. Operators had to pay bingo duty and VAT on the fees taken in bingo games and sessions, but Mecca said that VAT should not be charged.

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The refund claim for the second case started as jackpot machines were subject to VAT, and fixed odd betting machines prior to 2005 weren’t. Rank said that the VAT obligations contravened the European Union principle of fiscal neutrality, basically that as the machines were similar they should be treated the same as far as VAT was concerned. The tribunal ruled in their favour, agreed that they were similar and therefore the jackpot machines should not have been subject to VAT.

Deloitte gave advice to Rank in both cases, and always believed that they would win. Tony McClenaghan, a Senior Tax Partner for the company said; “This is a very welcome decision following on from earlier victories at the Tribunal and in the High Court. We have always been confident that there was a breach of fiscal neutrality in the differential treatment of the relevant gaming machines and we welcome the Tribunal’s confirmation of this fact. Taxpayers affected by this decision should now consider making claims for overpaid VAT”.

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HMRC have appealed the rulings to the European Court of Justice. This is expected to be heard some time next year, although it is not thought likely to succeed. Rank must be keeping it’s fingers crossed on this, as if the HMRC were to overturn the original verdicts then they would have to return the payment, and to add salt to their wounds would also have to pay interest on this.

A town council has defended its action in stopping a bingo caller saying “two fat ladies 88″ and “legs 11″ due to fears that players might sue.

Former mayor John Sayers, 75, who runs weekly bingo at the town hall in Sudbury, Suffolk, said he had been advised to stop using these phrases. He said no one had complained about being offended, but players had since moaned that his new style is “boring”.

Sudbury Town Council said it had issued the advice due to legal concerns.

Sue Brotherwood, Sudbury Town Council clerk, said: “We hear these things, of people being sued because of it, and obviously we have to take it on board.

“It’s very sad that everyone seems to have lost their sense of humour.”

Mr Sayers, a serving councillor, told the BBC: “The concern was that if there might be two large ladies in the audience when I said ‘two fat ladies 88′ or someone might think I was looking at their legs when I said ‘legs 11′.

“I was advised that someone might take offence and we could end up being taken to court.”

He added: “I don’t like it. “No-one had ever complained about being offended. But they moan now, they say it’s boring. And I think just saying the numbers is boring too. “I’m obviously not being offensive – just having a bit of fun. It’s the tradition of the game and part of our language.”

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Online gaming giants, 888 holdings, have spent a massive £60 million on an online bingo site which was founded less than two years ago. Wink bingo owners Daub Ltd will be paid £59.7million for the business which also includes brands Posh Bingo and Bingo Fabulous.

This deal follows takeovers from rivals PartyGaming of Foxy bingo and Think bingo back in July for more than £100million.

The online bingo industry seems to be growing at speed and is proving to be attractive to online gaming firms such as 888 and PartyGaming who are increasingly searching for new alliances.

Wink bingo launched in 2008 and now boasts more than 60,000 active players making it one of the most popular online bingo sites in the UK. Wink bingo made £15million in revenue with £1.3million in profit during the first 11 months of this year.

888 is to pay £11miilion upfront with the rest being performance related in the year to end of March 2011 with the potential to reach a price of £59.7 million.

Gigi Levy, chief executive of 888, said: “We are delighted to announce the Wink Bingo acquisition as an expansion of our online bingo footprint in the lucrative UK market. The Wink team has a proven track record of excellence and will be a great addition to our growing bingo business.”

He also said trading at 888 “remains strong and is in line with management’s expectations”.

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Bingo club operators celebrated as the Chancellor said the duty on their earnings would be reduced from 22 per cent to 20 per cent in the spring.

Bingo companies, which have been hit hard by the smoking ban and changes in machine regulations, were furious when Alistair Darling raised the tax on their gross profits from 15 per cent to 22 per cent in April.

The industry lobbied hard to get him to reduce the burden in line with what other gambling businesses pay. While the increase in duty was somewhat offset by the Government ditching VAT on playing bingo and other forms of gaming in the April Budget, the industry said the 22 per cent duty had cost it several million pounds and was responsible for a drop in clubs from 700 to about 590.

Paul Talboys, the chief executive of the Bingo Association, said: “We are pleased that the Treasury has listened and digested the actual ‘facts’ of bingo tax and revised the gross profit tax rate.

“But the reasons for its delayed implementation until the next Budget is not apparent and will mean that the much-needed benefit, particularly for smaller independent clubs, will not be felt until April 2010. I only hope that they can all make it.”

Rank Group, which runs 103 Mecca Bingo clubs, said the reduction would add £2.5m to its full-year operating profits. Ian Burke, the chief executive, said: “This is a step in the right direction, but it is still not clear why Britain’s bingo clubs should be subject to a higher tax rate than that applied to other gaming and betting.”

David Trunkfield, head of gaming at PricewaterhouseCooppers, added: “This change will be welcomed, though it falls short of the cries for duty to be slashed to 15 per cent.”

A Leeds mum has gone from bingo winner to life on the breadline after blowing her jackpot in just 12 months. Cheryl McCann won £49,998 at Mayfair Bingo in Leeds in August 2007. She says she split the prize with family friend Linden Hudson who had lent her £20 to play.

She says spent the money on driving lessons, a car, a new TV, new sofa and other furniture and on holidays and weekends away. She also gave money to her family and friends.  She used the rest of her share of the money to live on – her previous benefits stopped when she won the cash .

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Within 12 months the money was almost all gone. For the past year she has been applying for benefits but has repeatedly been told she doesn’t qualify and Cheryl now faces eviction from her home because she can’t pay the rent. She says she is so broke so has to rely on her mum for handouts and some days can’t afford to send her children to school.  She has stopped paying the council rent and has had her phone cut off. Much of her money is swallowed up by debts with power companies and she has had bailiffs at her home for non-payment of council tax.

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But, despite her perilous financial state, she is being denied benefits because work and pensions bosses say she acted irresponsibly in squandering her winnings.  A Department of Work and Pensions spokesman said “While we accept reasonable spending of savings or similar resources when calculating entitlement to means-tested benefits, we have to be sure the taxpayer is not being asked to pay someone who has deliberately spent money or used up resources that could have provided an alternative income.“

Cheryl, 33, said: “I don’t have a penny left. I just don’t know what to do, I’m so desperate.  It’s a mess.”

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