New paper from HMRC on taxation of games machines

[grecian]

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/consult_m ... s_duty.htm

Out this afternoon. Only had about five minutes' look but the proposal appears to be that the proposed new duty (Machine Games Duty) won't distinguish between SWPs and AWPs in the way the current Amusement Machine Licence Duty (AMLD) does. As the paper puts it (at paragraph 3.3), "modern machines often rely on computer technology and differences between games of chance and games of skill are slight and difficult to verify". I don't disagree with that, although it's perhaps a little worrying that SWPs will be brought inside the new duty given they're free from duty at the moment...

[Topical2009]

It seems that they want to vary the amount of tax payable according to how profitable a machine is. Perhaps this will mean pubs will be happy to see expert machine players coming into their pubs and reducing their tax burden. OK, maybe not.

[cp999]

..

[Drpepper]

Question is, is it going to get better for AWP's, or worse for SWP's...

Or given the current climate, probably worse for both.

[michaelmartin_526]

so will this mean...

SWP's will be able to offer prizes of up to £70?
SWP's will be able to be themed on gambling games Poker, Roulette and Bingo?
No rules on the amount of "elements of skill" to win an SWP game?

[cool]

swp's do not have a limit on their jackpot.The connected millionaire machines offered jackpot of up to and beyond a grand.The fact that pubs didnt have them was probably due to cost and limitations of space although there was a millionaire with a jackpot of £100 in a pub in Milton Keynes at one time.In fact the trend has been to lower jackpots,or introduce games in at low settings so that it would be a miracle for the theoretical jackpot to ever be reached.

[michaelmartin_526]

I thought the HMRC guidlines that were brought in earlier this year specified the prize amounts? And I thought quizzers could not call it a Jackpot, it’s always a Maximum Prize?

[cool]

very true! but old gits like me will always refer to the it as the jackpot- what actually is the difference between the two except spelling? I think the reason that games often do not advertise a jackpot is that its totally unrealistic as most people do well even to win a pound so its creating unrealistic expectations.