Poker Will be Dead in Great Britain in 2010?

No more poker in 2010 in Great Britain.

That's the suggestion made by Victoria Coren of the Guardian Newspaper as part of her predictions for the year 2010.

The rationale behind such a statement:

New tax laws mean that it might become impossible for our most well-known card rooms to host poker games.

Coren explains:

The 2009 spring budget introduced a stupid, greedy, ill-thought-out change to the tax rules. Casinos always paid full tax on their table games, but VAT only on poker. That's because poker was a "service" rather than a "business" - at the Vic (or similar outfits) customers play against each other, not the house, paying only a small hourly fee for table hire.

The budget ignored this, slapping a full tax rate on poker as well. The money raised will be too small to affect the nation's finances: it's just big enough to cripple the Vic. It has cost them an extra million so far this year. If poker is as expensive for them as roulette, while being so much less lucrative, why should they bother to keep having it?

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Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com