Great Britain: complete revision of online gaming

The United Kingdom is one of the first European countries to have legalised gaming on the internet: online casinos, poker, horse racing and sports betting. In fact Great Britain has put in place a “white list” of online gaming sites which can legally offer their services to English players. It must be said that gaming is an institution in England and that groups like William Hill and Ladbrokes are present on the High Street. So it is possible to bet on a football match or on a horse in one of thousands of actual betting offices. Malta is also one of the European countries which has completely legal online gaming in every area and quite a large part of its economy is based on gaming.

The United Kingdom treasury decided to react to refill the state coffers by taxing online gaming sites. This means that several operators which are offshore companies are going to have to pay a tax to the English government which will benefit to the tune of 17 million pounds sterling. The future legislation will concern in particular the topic of the hosting of the servers of offshore companies operating in Great Britain and there could be up to twenty which are not paying any tax to the government!Thanks to this tax the state coffers will be refilled in particular since the island has been hit hard by the economic crisis like every European country. In fact in response to a demand from 30 trade unions, a historic strike may paralyse the country and bring together no less than 2 million protestors against the austerity plan. Taxing online casino sites and other games on the web will allow the United Kingdom Treasury to be “healthier” even though the state will have to have to explore other options to refill its empty coffers.

It is fitting to make an aside to the topic of this article to present an icon of the English market: William Hill. This London Stock Market listed group created a joint venture with Playtech, the online gaming software leader. William Hill concentrated its business in London and Gibraltar and let go a large part of its employees working in Tel Aviv (see the article William Hill Casino: from Tel Aviv to Gibraltar?) The William Hill group is an institution in Great Britain and it has thousands of betting offices where one can bet on a horse or a sporting outcome. The online casino William Hill Casino offers players many casino games using Playtech technology.