BBPA warns of £85m cost of SWP tax

Government plans to change the taxation of popular quiz and games machines like Clued and Monopoly, will cost the industry £85m, the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) is warning today.

And the move from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is also likely to put many manufacturers out of business and turn more people towards gambling on fruit machines, says the BBPA.

HMRC is seeking to reclassify Skills with Prizes (SWP) machines as gambling machines, making them liable for gaming machine tax - and it also wants to make the tax retrospective for the last three years, which could cost the industry £85m.

The BBPA argues that SWP machines - of which there are currently around 35,000 in the UK - should continue to be recognised as distinct from fruit machines, as they require skill to play them, rather than luck.

Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of the British Beer & Pub Association said, "The perverse result of this tax change will be to switch more people onto gambling as quiz machines are switched off across Britain. That cannot be a sensible or sustainable public policy outcome.

"It must make more sense for government to encourage those people who enjoy playing machines to have a bit of fun with their friends with games that are about skill and entertainment, rather than turn to gambling. At the moment there is an incentive for pubs and people to play these machines. This proposed tax change will remove that at a stroke.

"This sudden tax change will place a swingeing tax burden on the industry. The inevitable result of such a considerable cost increase will be business failure, job losses and contraction in this growing market."