The UK Gambling Commission expects a surge in online gambling revenues once the Gambling Licensing and Advertising Act 2014 goes into effect.
The online sector, which currently accounts for 17 percent of the nation’s overall gaming market, saw revenues rise 22 percent last year on sports betting turnover that jumped 30 percent to 25.4 billion, a trend the top regulator says will continue once operators get comfortable with the new regime, which requires them to accept UK licensing wherever they are based and is tied to companion legislation that imposes a 15 percent tax on their revenues generated in Great Britain.
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Priti Patel has said the new system is “providing a fairer tax system for all gambling operators.”
“Those businesses that moved their operations abroad to avoid paying UK taxes will now have to pay their fair share of tax. The government has created a level playing field across the gambling industry so that all gambling by UK consumers is now subject to UK tax laws.”
Operators are not so sure, however, and in a recent interview CEO Peter Howitt of the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association, a trade group that failed to defeat the legislation in British court, says the country is becoming an increasingly unattractive one to do business.
“The way the UK has gone about recent changes to regulation and tax has destabilized the confidence in the UK for some operators,” he said.
Although the situation is far from bleak, he suggested that more needs to be done by politicians and those in the industry to foster a new, more positive relationship for the good of the UK economy.
He also said the association plans to mount another legal challenge to the act in 2015.
