UK Bookmakers Coming Home To Pay Tax

Published: Friday, January 21, 2005 Online-Casinos.com

UK BOOKMAKERS COMING HOME TO PAY TAX

Tax breaks will bring 'em back, study opines

The week started with an interesting view on UK gambling tax from Bloombergs, which reported that betting firms like William Hill Plc and Hilton Group Plc moved businesses back to Britain after gambling taxes were reformed in 2001, a study by U.K. government auditors has found.

"The big operators have repatriated their offshore businesses and secured additional employment within the U.K.,'' the report said, citing William Hill and Hilton Group's Ladbrokes subsidiary.

Under pre-2001 rules, customers had to pay 9 percent tax on each stake, making offshore gaming firms, such as Internet sites, cheaper. The reforms replaced that levy with a 15 percent gross profits tax on bookmakers.

Gambling duties collected fell to GBP 1.35 billion ($2.54 billion) in the year to April 2004 from GBP 1.53 billion in the year to April 1999. Still, "...it is likely that the reduction under the old regime would have been higher in the longer term had no change been made,'' a report by the National Audit Office concluded.

The UK govenment is currently trying to pass legislation to reform Britsh gambling law, allowing Las Vegas-style casinos, albeit in restricted numbers for the first time.

Government estimates predict the amount gambled in Britain will rise to GBP 12.5 billion a year within five years from GBP 8.7 billion in the year through April 2004, discounting inflation, if the proposed legislation is passed.

The gaming industry as a whole currently accounts for the equivalent of 100,000 full- time jobs in the U.K., according to the study of the Gambling Bill.