Offshore casino firms may face UK levies
Posted by Gavin Smith on 01 May 2009 at 12:05
New UK rules could be brought in meaning gaming companies based overseas would have to pay millions of pounds towards support for horseracing and research into addiction.
The Financial Times reports ministers are mulling the move after MPs complained about operators based on-shore paying levies while those based offshore can advertise products in the UK but not pay anything.
Bookmakers have backed this view, and have just settled on another 12 months of contributions to the Horserace Betting Levy.
The sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, is set to announce a review by the Gambling Commission, the Financial Times reports, while work is to begin on drawing up a more "level playing field" of payments.
The plans include getting offshore firms to pay for industry regulation and addiction treatment. The Financial Times report lists PartyGaming, Sportingbet, 888 and Betfair as among those running offshore servers.
However, the review could stumble on difficulty as it is unclear whether it would be feasible to distinguish between the profits of offshore firms which are made in the UK, and from non UK gamers, to set the levy.
Officials are also set to ask what operators are doing to prevent or deter issues such as match fixing.
The Gambling Commission is now able to look into betting irregularities with help from sport experts, betting industry professionals and the police.
According to the Financial Times, the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Gambling Commission are also going to look at rules brought in by the Gambling Act in 2005 which govern online gaming.
Following 2007, companies licenced in UK-recognised jurisdictions, like Gibraltar and the Isle of Man can advertise under rules run by the commission.
Among MPs concerns are why a lot of the £1.4 billion generated by internet gaming in Britain ends up abroad.
Quoted by the paper, Mr Sutcliffe said: "We have taken steps in the right direction, but technology is changing and attitudes are changing."
He also reportedly said he acknowledged Britain's gaming taxation regime meant operators were discouraged from basing their servers in Britain, but added this was up to the Treasury to look at.
