Betting and Gaming Duties Act 1981

17 Bingo duty

(1) A duty of excise, to be known as bingo duty, shall be charged on the playing of bingo in Great Britain except in the cases specified in Part I of Schedule 3 to this Act.

(2) Bingo duty shall be charged in respect of bingo played in a particular week; and the amount of the duty shall be—

(a) 10 per cent, of the total of the money taken by or on behalf of the promoter in that week as payment by players for their cards, plus

(b) (subject to section 19(1) below) one ninth of the amount (if any) by which that total, after deduction of the 10 per cent, chargeable under paragraph (a) above, is exceeded by the total value of the prizes won in that week's bingo.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a player's " cards " are the sets of numbers or symbols (in whatever form or lay-out) with which he plays bingo, matching them against calls made by the house ; and a player pays for a card when he gives money in exchange for, or for the use of, a particular card, whether it is appropriated to a particular game or can be appropriated by the player to a game of his choice.