Ladbrokes secures headroom News
Ladbrokes has signed new five year facilities with its relationship banks totalling £540m which will mature in 2016, replacing existing arrangements which total £560m and had been due to mature in 2013. Ladbrokes CFO Ian Bull welcomed the support from lenders: “The new arrangements, together with our proven track record for strong cash generation, mean the business is on a strong footing as we continue to invest in our plan to reinvigorate Ladbrokes.”
Irish remote tax coming in this year
The Irish coalition government has introduced a new online gambling tax as it looks to revamp the country’s gambling regulation. Simon Banks reports.
IRELAND O
nline and tele- phone betting in Ireland will be subject to tax this year, finance min-
ister Michael Noonan announced in the budget. Maintaining retail betting duty at 1 per cent of turnover, Noonan said that online and telephone would be taxed at the same rate, while interme- diaries, such as exchanges would pay 15 per cent of gross profits. Noonan said in the budget statement: “The Betting (Amendment) Bill is now at an advanced stage of drafting with a final draft expected from the Attorney General’s Office early in the New Year. Following publi- cation of the Bill there is a legal requirement to notify the EU Commission three months in advance of enact- ment of the Bill. It is intended that the new taxation regime will commence from the second quarter of 2012.” The statement offers a timeline for legislation for the first time and at least gives operators some clarity and time to prepare. As Irish Bookmakers Association chair Sharon Byrne noted: “Fianna Gael/Labour coali- tion government has got further in a year than the
previous Fianna Fail gov- ernment had got in three and half years.” However, she also noted that the propos- als were almost the same as those muted by the previous administration: “There is very little in terms of origi- nal Fianna Gael policy here.” Byrne thinks that the exchanges have got off lightly: “15 per cent of gross profits is just 15 per cent of commission and I know that many of the big hitters pay very little or no com- mission as the exchange needs the liquidity they provide.” Analysts esti- mate that Betfair will pay an additional £1.8m in tax on their Irish sports busi- ness when the new regime comes into force.
Noonan estimates that by extending the duty to include online and tele- phone will yield between 10m and 20m euros a year in exchequer revenues and Fine Gael Cork South West Deputy Noel Harrington has suggested the extra money ‘could, and should, be ring- fenced for addiction serv- ices and support’.
Meanwhile, Dublin-based stockbroker Davy has high- lighted the increasing con- solidation in the Irish retail
market. Following the acquisition of William Hill’s 15 remaining shops by Boylesports, Davy reports that Boyles is now third in shop numbers with 176 outlets, behind Paddy Power with 206 and Lad- brokes 216. The broker points out that there are now 1,120 betting shops in the Republic, down 18 per cent on 2008, with the abovemen- tioned ‘big three’ operating 54 per cent of the shops, compared with just over 40 per cent three years ago. Boyles spokesman Leon Blanche told Betting Busi- ness interactive that although the retail land- scape has changed, the acquisition shows Boyle- sports’ commitment to the retail market: “We were delighted to be able to secure 65 jobs in these diffi- cult times with the Hills deal and we would hope the gov- ernment will appreciate the fact that, together with our online and telephone opera- tions, we employ 1,100 people in the Republic.” Blanche added: “All we want is a level playing field so that Irish companies are not dis- criminated against and can compete with the offshore online operators.”
Denmark becomes the latest online
DENMARK T
he turn of the year has seen Denmark open its doors to the online gam- bling industry with 38 opera- tors receiving a total of 55 licences for online betting and online casino. It has not been a smooth ride for the legislation enabling the igaming industry ‘official’ access to the market - a European ruling was needed before the government was allowed to offer a lower tax rate for online gambling than that applied for bricks & mortar operations.
Among the new licensees ANALYSIS
It is estimated that gambling turnover for 2011 will reach 4.5bn euro, compared to 1.1bn euro in 2001 and just 370m euro in 1991. However, the tax yield for 2011 is expected to be around 26m euro, whereas the exchequer earned 37m euro in 1991. The Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund, the mechanism through which the government transfers betting duty to the sports, was cut by 1.7 per cent to 52.6m euro and thus escaped the level of cuts announced elsewhere in the budget.
SHARON BYRNE: ‘MANY OF THE BIG HITTERS PAY VERY LITTLE OR NO COMMISSION’
are Danske Spil,
Bwin.party, Bet 365, Intouch Casino, Nordic Betting, PKR, Poker- Stars, Scandic Bookmakers, StanleyBet, Unibet, 888, Betfair, Betsson and Lad- brokes.
Independent report into Alderney’s actions T
REGULTION
he Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) is looking to restore its reputa- tion as a top level remote gambling jurisdiction by commissioning an independent review into its per- formance during the Full Tilt Poker debacle.
The AGCC’s actions were widely criticised at the time, with delayed hearings, a u-turn on the hearings being held in public, and the general regulation which allowed Full Tilt’s actions to go unnoticed until the US Department of Justice swooped.
The AGCC did suspend and even- tually revoke licences belonging to Vantage Limited, Filco Limited, and Oxalic Limited together trading as Full Tilt Poker (FTP), and the newly announced review will look at the regulators actions and processes
4 BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2012
PETER DEAN: WILL REPORT ON THE AGCC’S PROCESSES
during this time. The review will be conducted Peter Dean CBE - former chairman of the British Gambling Commission and its predecessor the Gaming Board. AGCC executive director André
Wilsenach stated: “As soon as we became aware that there were pos-
sible irregularities in relation to FTP’s operational integrity AGCC acted to discharge fully our statu- tory obligations. We believe we acted appropriately and fairly at all times but, following our own inter- nal assessment and the inevitable questions that have been raised by third parties, the Commission decided that it is in the best inter- ests of players, licence holders and AGCC itself to commission an inde- pendent review and to make the outcome public.”
Despite this, one of the strangest aspects of the whole process was when the regulator issued a bizarre statement in the name of executive director Wilsenach, who criticised his organisation’s own Commis- sioners who formed the Full Tilt tri- bunal and had decided to hold the hearings ‘in camera’. However, it seems Wilsenach is fully on board with the latest deci-
Danish minister of taxa- tion Thor Möger Pedersen said: “From January the gambling market will be orderly and we will ensure that holders of a betting and online casino licence to operate on the Danish market also contribute to the society. Danes as well as the many associations sup- ported by the gambling market can be joyful. “The orderly market means, among other things, that all gambling operators without a licence from 1 January 2012, risk that their website or payments will be blocked. The new and open gambling market in Denmark has been under- way since the Parliament’s decision in 2010.”
sion: “I am delighted that Peter Dean has agreed to conduct the review. He has many years of expe- rience at the top of the British Gam- bling Commission and commands wide respect from operators and regulators alike. He has been asked to review fully the actions taken by AGCC in respect of FTP and to focus specifically on the appropri- ateness, timeliness and fairness of those actions.”
Dean has been asked to present a final report and recommenda- tions to the Commission by the end of March 2012. Whether the scope of the report is wide enough to cover the issue of the ring-fencing of players’ money will probably be at the discretion of the author, but it became a massive issue at the time given that the Isle of Man-reg- ulated PokerStars was able to fully reimburse its players after Black Friday in stark contrast to Full Tilt.
In anticipation of the launch, the Danish Gambling Authority held an informa- tion session for new licence holders to inform about upcoming activities on the gambling scene. Licence holders were briefed on how the Danish Gambling Author- ity intends to monitor gam- bling market and co-operate with gambling authorities in other countries; the regula- tor already has bilateral co- operation agreements with Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Alderney. However, the regulations have not been fully imple- mented in time because of technical delays surround- ing the requirement for digital signatures in ID pro- cedures, forcing the Author- ity to use a work for operators not located in Denmark. The ID system is anticipated to be up and running next month.
jurisdiction
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