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.

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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The golden ticket final £5,000,000 game will be played on 17th February 2010 at precisely 9.30pm, but to take part in this one you need to win a golden ticket first. When this game does run all golden ticket holders will get to participate in at and play for the £5 million cash prize, and no matter what one very lucky 888 Ladies Bingo player is going to end up quids in on the night as this game is guaranteed to payout at least a £50,000 cash prize, with the top prize being £5m.

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Full details of just how you could get your hands on those all important golden tickets are listed on 888 Ladies Bingo for you to view, but we can tell you that these include being a newbie player, giving their instant games a whirl, playing in their five daily free bingo games and guaranteed £50 75 ball bingo jackpot games, plus an exclusive golden ticket offer is open to gold VIP 888 Ladies Bingo players only.

The golden ticket game will be a coverall jackpot game, meaning the first player to cover all the numbers on their bingo card will win. At a certain point in the game the money on offer £5,000,000 will start to decrease with each ball that is called, but like I said earlier the least amount which will be won has been set at a guaranteed £50,000 jackpot prize, giving all golden ticket players so much to play for!

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”.

They have bumped up their monthly jackpot to £8,888 for the new decade. The first game of the decade with this amazing jackpot will be on January 1st at 10pm. This gives you enough time to sleep off your hangover so you have no excuse to miss out. And if you are busy then don’t worry as you can pre buy your tickets now to make sure that you don’t miss out.

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If you aren’t already a member of 888 Ladies then you are missing out. They welcome everyone (including men) with open arms and £5 free without a deposit. This means that you can try out the site before depositing any money. And once you realise how amazing it is they will give you a 150% bonus on your first deposit.

This means that if you deposit £10 then you will get an extra £15 absolutely free! And all subsequent deposits will be given a 50% bonus so if you deposit £20 then you will get £10 absolutely free!
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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.”

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.”

Following this great achievement Metro have recently launched their online Bingo site which is proving to be a huge success with their loyal following of readers.

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2006 saw the launch of Sun Bingo online which has very quickly grown to be one of the UK’s favourite online bingo sites. At any one point during the day there is around 1,000 players online playing bingo there and so far the site has paid out over £100million!

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Sun bingo doesn’t currently feature any slot or casino games. However it does give players the chance to play cinco card games, battleships and hamster race. So you’re sure to be kept entertained at this fantastic site.

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“the_proffessor” who asked Paddy for her two front teeth as they were broken while eating a delicious crusty roll for lunch!

This offer is open until December 13th so get those Christmas wishes in soon at Paddy Power Bingo!