UK Budget 2007 Gambling Tax

Details

Created on Tuesday, 27 March 2007 12:49

Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, has introduced a new 50% tax on the profits of big casinos that goes in the face of years of favourable treatment for the gambling industry in the UK.

Gaming market watchers are expecting a big dip in inward investment into new and existing casinos and commented that the UK's 1st super casino destined for Manchester could end up looking 'more like a big warehouse full of slots machines' rather than a glitzy Las Vegas style gambling house.

Casino operators reacted angrily, stating that the Chancellor's actions will pull the rug from under the economic investment which other MPs have used to railroad through a big development in casinos.

Mr Brown, a Presbyterian by birth - a sect that is totally against gambling of any kind - also declared a 15% tax for online casino and poker companies, most of which currently operate from offshore locations. Betting and poker mandarins had indicated they would shun Britain if faced with these kind of taxes, since offshore centres enable them to operate with low or zero tax levels.

Mr Brown's tax proposals look set to keep all the casino companies firmly at bay, which seems to make a nonsense of Labour's efforts to set tough rules to regulate the ever expanding online gambling sector.

Tessa Jowell was gunning to make Britain the home of internet gambling, attracting online operators to base themselves in Blighty. That strategy appears to have become a victim of the Blair-Brown rivalry at the heart of modern day Labour.

Most market watchers had expected Gordo Brown to offer a realistic and fair tax level to tempt casino operators back to the British Isles but he has in fact gone down the opposite road, in effect sticking 2 fingers up at website operators. One of the more famous online casinos in Gibraltar, 32 Red, who sponsor Aston Villa Football Club, are rumoured to have shelved their plans to leave Gibraltar.

[ 32 RED Online 100 Free CLICK HERE ]