News in brief: Rank to claim £42m tax back; Jadestone Yatzy; bookies drop odds on RATM for UK Xmas number 1...  16/12/2009

Rank has announced it expects to collect £25.9m in overpaid Value-Added Tax (VAT) from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs during the first quarter of 2010. This follows Tuesday’s decision by the VAT and Duties Tribunal that the UK government’s treatment of certain types of amusement machines in its land-based casinos and bingo clubs between 2002 and 2005 contravened the European Union’s principles of fiscal neutrality.As reported on EGRmagazine.com, Rank has also submitted a claim for £16m VAT overpaid on main stage bingo in its land-based clubs from 2004 following the UK government's announcement yesterday it will no longer charge VAT on bingo games after a judgment in the Rank Group High Court case on 8 June 2009 brought by Deloitte. 

Multiplayer gaming network owner Jadestone Networks has added the game Maxi Yatzy, a take on the traditional Yatzy game, to its GamArena p2p skill gaming network. 

UK bookies have slashed the odds on 1992 song Killing In The Name by rock band Rage Against the Machine beating the winner of UK TV’s The X-Factor to become Britain’s Christmas number one. The anthem, which has the distinctive chorus ‘F*ck you I won’t do what you tell me,’ was championed against Joe McElderry's The Climb by a group on social networking site Facebook as a protest against the sway on the music charts by the talent show. Oddschecker commercial manager Simon Miller said: “Normally a Simon Cowell benefit gig, the market has become competitive thanks to the Facebook campaign. RATM were installed as 6/1 second favourites by Ladbrokes last Monday, it was cut the same day and a steady stream of bets now leave RATM best price at 3/1 with William Hill. Punters wishing to side against X-Factor are best off taking the 3/1 ‘any other artist’ with Paddy Power which offers the added insurance of having RATM plus the field running for you."

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Posted: 16/12/2009