News

Monday, 10 August 2009 06:30

Following top sports bookmaker William Hill's decision to move it operations from the UK mainland to Gibraltar to avoid paying the heavy tax levied on all gambling companies, other Big names are joining the exodus.

Ladbrokes are the latest bookmakers to announce the departure of their online betting and casino operations in favour of the lower taxes levied by the Gibraltar authorities. Others are expected to follow suit in what amounts to a snub for the UK government's attempts to claw back a huge slice of the online gambling pie into its coffers via the hefty 15% tax. In contrast, the government of Gibraltar will charge online gambling firms a mere 1.5% tax. The difference is so great as to have tempted the UK companies offshore in a move that has started to worry ministers and gambling groups alike, albeit for different reasons.

Government ministers fear the loss of revenue, although the many anti-gambling groups are more concerned with the loss of legislative control that companies licensed in the UK are bound by.

It is clear that the policy adopted by Gibraltar actively encourages companies operating online gambling establishments to move to its territory with temptingly low rates of taxation and fewer controls and regulations.

While the online gambling operators see the move as a purely financially instigated one, questions are being asked as to whether the move will encourage more unregulated gambling practises. Fears such as the potential relaxation of controls for underage gambling are worrying anti-gambling groups. The potential for fewer controls over the disclosure of suspicious betting patterns which UK companies are obliged to reveal under an information sharing scheme is also a concern. For the online gambling companies, their own self regulating procedures will keep their gambling operations clean and honest, as they would stand to lose too much business if there were any hint of irregularities with their respective gambling systems. News travels fast and bad news travels faster within the Internet, so it is very much in the companies' interests to keep up their respectability and trustworthiness within the industry. 

The British sports leagues are reported to have asked the government for clarification as to whether companies such as William Hill and Ladbrokes that operate online gambling services will still be expected to operate under the same rules as online gambling operators based on British soil. So far no decisive answer has been forthcoming.