GeneRal infoRmation - Remote BettinG, BinGo and casino 2008/09


Number of employees Self exclusions


Known breaches of self exclusion


Number of people who cancelled self exclusion after minimum period Customer accounts


Active customer accounts New players registrations


Funds held in customer accounts


Gross gambling yield for remote betting, bingo and casino


8,577


47,405 7,186


1,556


17,784,132 5,415,770 5,674,586 £283m


£714m


uk Remote GamBlinG licences 2008/09


General betting Society lottery


Gambling software Pool betting


General betting (telephone) Casino


Betting intermediary


External Lottery Managers Bingo


TOTAL


also published its Licence Conditions and Codes of Practice (LCCP) in November 2006 followed by a supplement a month later and a further revision of the LCCP was published in June 2007 which replaced both documents. Licensed online operators must adhere to these Codes of Practice and the Remote Gambling Software Technical Standards.


Since the publication of the LCCP several issues were raised and a consultation exercise was undertaken resulting in the new LCCP published in October 2008 which took effect in January 2009.


The Gambling Act also called for the creation of the UK Gambling Commission which oversees all regulation enforcement in the areas of licensing online casinos and so far no other country has adopted such comprehensive online gambling regulatory legislation.


The requirement for holding a UK licence however was not made easy. Problems arose with the 15 per cent tax on profits, which although high, remains workable and is even low compared to some markets. But couple that with up to 30 per cent corporate tax rates, horseracing betting levy (where applicable), annual licence fees and application fees, plus contributions to research, education and treatment of problem gambling, basically it all adds up and the sums are proving too high.


72 50


104 42 40 20 19 9 9


366


The law also made it a statutory force to have policies and procedures in place for socially responsible gambling and employees are trained to identify problem gambling, self exclusion is available and all operations must display a statement that they are regulated by the Gambling Commission, their licence number and link to the Commission’s website.


The Act also enabled operators based in EEA or ‘white listed’ jurisdictions to advertise freely in the UK as if they were licensed and regulated here. This was something of a unique stance at the time and one which is now causing controversy.


The law didn’t seek to criminalise consumers who gambled with off-shore operators or criminalise those operators. It merely recognised that gambling and other e- commerce products are not capable of complete regulation within national boundaries. It instead offered operators a


the law didn’t seek to


cRiminalise


consumeRs oR off- shoRe opeRatoRs.


40,351 7,478


1,519


2009/10 % change 8,287


-3%


-15% 4%


-2%


17,160,876 -4% 4,283,673 4,896,705 £288m


£634m


-21% -14% 2%


-11%


2009/10 73 96


105 53 41 18 24 12 12


432


chance to provide products that are fully regulated and give that choice to consumers no matter where they are located.


And this is where the plan starts falling apart.


Over the last couple of years, due to the high 15 per cent taxation for online gaming companies, major companies such as Sportingbet, Party Gaming, 888.com, William Hill and Ladbrokes have all opted to move their businesses out of the UK and to an off- shore jurisdiction. Even state owned Tote has part of it’s business off-shore.


Betfair was one of the latest companies to follow suit and moved part of its business to Gibraltar in a bid to slash its tax burden last year. The company estimated that a move to Gibraltar where tax is 10 per cent could save it up to US$32m a year.


Gibraltar currently has about 20 online betting companies now doing business from there employing around 2,000 people. Here they can pay less tax and companies can then invest millions in promoting their websites to UK gamblers via sports sponsorships and advertising. These millions are however only available due to the generous tax breaks enjoyed in these off-shore tax havens.


Now most major online operators have moved 63


united kinGdom


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