Just another tax grab
The UK government has only just woken up to what it has missed out in terms of the tax, jobs and a wide range of other benefits to the digital economy argues gaming legal expert Jason Chess.
Those of us with anything to do with the remote gambling industry get very frustrated with the official mantra that the business was invented by Satan to destroy families, as I think one theologically-minded US politician once put it. Despite the best efforts of the analysts at Nottingham University, prevalence surveys boringly demonstrate that problem gambling involving reputable remote operators remains low. This is a miracle if you consider that back in 1998 when these surveys began, we were all clanking away on a 45kB p/s dialup and that over that same period that gambling addiction has failed to increase, the speed, attractiveness, sophistication and accessibility of remote gambling has skyrocketed. One might be forgiven for thinking that someone, somewhere was perhaps doing something right.
So I found it odd that the Minister felt the need todress up what will no doubt turn into a tax grab as an “”¦important measure to help address concerns about problem gambling”¦”. I do have an objection to gambling, but it isn’t with any of my remote gambling clients who spend endless time, money and effort, almost obsessively, trying to make sure that their customers play responsibly and are looked after when they don’t “ it is rather with the blaring prime time adverts that tell the poorest in our society that “It could be you!”
In reality, I think that the changes announced to the UK regime have little to do with problem gambling. There is an argument that regulations in some jurisdictions do not leave one with as warm a feeling as they perhaps should. For example, it looks to me as if the history of PokerStars and Full Tilt’s customer reimbursement over the last few months points to a massive tick in the box for the Isle of Man and a question mark for the others “ log onto the poker blogs to see the punters’ take on that.
I also see that emerging EU regulation does not look consistent and that the assumption of the 2005 Act that anything EU-originated should be automatically acceptable to the UK now looks naive. But the reality is that the UK has only now belatedly woken up to what it is missing out in terms of the tax, jobs and a wide range of other benefits to the digital economy that all haemorrhaged abroad when HM Treasury short-sightedly decided to impose 15% GPT with an escape route offshore in 2007.
So, instead of banging away about problem gambling the government should congratulate the industry on its social conscience and give it some positive incentives to come back onshore and help drive the British digital economy. Perhaps this is what George Osbourne has as a treat for us on Monday.