Tax hike rumors persist in the UK, Ireland has new regulatory regime

To raise the gambling tax in the United Kingdom or not to raise the gambling tax in the United Kingdom – this is the question.

Or would be – if we knew for a fact what is happening. Last weekend, we saw a lot of chatter generated after The Guardian, a respected publication, published a report citing governmental sources that the remote gambling duty in the country could increase to 50%, from 21% currently.

The move was supposedly designed to bolster an ailing public purse, that is missing around £22bn, with the tax ride supposed to alleviate some of the fiscal pain and raise £3bn. Not much is clear right now.

For one, the industry has responded with a mix of fear, ridicule, and caution, calling out such a tax increase as a "fantasy" or "outright stupid." Yet, the DCMS seems to be more level-headed about the issue, arguing that we should not believe "everything you [we] read in the papers."

This though was not a rebuttal per se. the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) Secretary of State Lisa Nandyhas said that the government is indeed planning to strike the right balance" in regulating the industry but stopped short of either denying or refuting the rumors.

All told Nandy argued that the government was perfectly aware of the huge potential the gambling industry had, and its impact on the economy, and it was not the government’s desire to undermine.

Just on the opposite, speaking in Parliament this week, Nandy said that the government wanted to make sure that the gambling industry grows and thrives. At the same time, however, the public seems to be inclined to support any measure that raises the tax on the gambling industry.

Ireland re-regulates gambling industry, Netherlands in focus

In the meantime, Ireland has received a new regulatory framework this week, which will allow the country to better enforce rules tied to consumer protection.

The Minister of State at the Department of Justice with responsibility for Law Reform, James Browne TDhas hailed the opportunity to introduce this "historic" piece of legislation that has now cleared all legislative hurdles and is enacted into a law, setting up the Údarás Rialála Cearrbhachais na hÉireann or the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland.

The first goal of the newly regulated industry will be to ensure that all market players are actually licensed and have the legal right to operate businesses locally.

The revisited gambling regulation will put a strong focus on player protection and responsible gambling, as well as set aside a significant war chest earmarked for preventing harm.

The Kansspelautoritet in the Netherlands has issued a new fine to BlockDance BV, which it has accused of operating "illegal gambling" in the country through its alleged ownership of the BCGame.lu and BC.Game websites.

The regulator has given the operator four weeks to comply with its request to stop offering unlicensed gambling products in the country or face a maximum penalty of €840,000.

The regulator alleges that a person of Dutch nationality based in the Netherlands can register, deposit, and pay at the websites and insists that the onus is on the operator to prevent this from happening in the first place.

In the meantime, a pair of Dutch MPs have insisted that the Netherlands should pursue a much tougher course against the gambling industry, de facto undoing some of the regulatory progress of the past several years.

MPs Derk Boswijk(CDA) and Diederik van Dijk(SGP) have said that the online gambling industry should be completely shuttered and insisted on tougher measures that guarantee better responsible gambling safeguards for consumers.

In the meantime, the DSWV, a trade association based in Germany, has said that the country is in a good position to address any potential match-fixing scandals and issues, and insisted that industry stakeholders were capable of detecting and flagging possible offenses across all tiers of sports in the country.

In Australia, the Victoria Gambling and Commission Control Commission (VGCCC) has issued an AU$2m fine to Crown Resorts, a prominent local operator of land-based gaming venues, arguing that the company had failed in hundreds of cases involving self-excluded gamblers.

An estimated 242 self-excluded gamblers were allowed to enter the Victoria casino and gamble, which has led to the penalty. Although the VGCCC criticized the operator heavily, it acquiesced that the company had not acted out of ill will but had failed because of systematic shortcomings that are now being addressed.

Aristocrat has settled a high-profile case with a former employee, one Dinh Toan Tran, who was accused as part of a lawsuit filed against competitor Light & Wonder, of copying highly sensitive documentation from his previous employer.

Tran has agreed to settle with his former boss, acknowledging that he had indeed downloaded a "substantial number of documents" prior to leaving the company – some 6,800 files, according to Aristocrat, which was allegedly used to develop Light & Wonder’s Dragon Train, a supposedly "copycat" game of Aristocrat’s Dragon Link. Tran will have to pay an undisclosed financial compensation.

The industry scoop

This week we caught up with BetComply’s Loes Wetzer, Operations Director at BetComply, who spoke at length about the United Arab Emirates and the burgeoning gambling industry in the region.

Wetzer went at length to recap all important developments so far and has cautioned that the gambling framework to be introduced locally would be a strict one. If you are keen on finding out more about the Middle East gambling market, you should read the full opinion piece by Wetzer that you can find here.

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