Finance Bill 2002: EXPLANATORY NOTE
CLAUSE 8: AMUSEMENT MACHINE LICENCE DUTY: EXCEPTED MACHINES
SUMMARY
1. Clause 8 makes provision for certain amusement machines to be outside the scope of amusement machine licence duty with effect from 1 May 2002.
DETAILS OF THE CLAUSE
2. Subsection (1) provides for section 21 of the Betting and Gaming Duties Act 1981 to be amended.
3. Subsection (2) amends section 21(3A) to make a fifty-penny machine, which is not a gaming machine, an excepted machine that is outside the scope of amusement machine licence duty.
4. Subsection (3) describes the characteristics that an amusement machine must have in order to be a fifty-penny machine.
5. Subsection (4) makes a consequential change to section 21(3C) (list of excepted machines).
6. Subsection (5) makes consequential changes to section 25(4) and (6) (accounting for machines with more than one screen or playing position).
7. Subsection (6) provides for these changes to have effect on 1 May 2002.
BACKGROUND
8. Excise duty is payable on an amusement machine licence, but such a licence is not required for an excepted machine. Presently excepted machines (which include video, pinball and quiz machines and some other machines that are not gaming machines) cease to be excepted if the cost for a person to play solo exceeds 35 pence.
9. The 35 pence limit, for the majority of non-gaming machines, has remained unchanged for 7 years, and the Government believed it was now time to update it. The provision made by this measure will therefore increase the limit to 50 pence and thereby increase the scope of excepted machines to cover all amusement machines that are not gaming machines that cost no more than 50 pence per person per play.
10. The revenue impact of this change will be negligible.