Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has met with the UK Minister for
Tourism & Heritage, John Penrose, to question the rationale behind the UK
government's plans to introduce a licensing regime for remote gaming operators,
contained in the Remote Gaming Bill which may soon be tabled before the UK's
parliament.
Under current arrangements in the UK (set out in the Gambling Act 2005), operators
who have key equipment in Great Britain are required to be licensed by the Gambling
Commission, whilst operators licensed in European Economic Area (EEA) member
states, Gibraltar and 'white-listed' jurisdictions (Isle of Man, Alderney, Tasmania
and Antigua and Barbuda) are permitted to advertise in the UK by virtue of the
licence held in their home jurisdiction.
In launching a consultation on a proposed new regime, the UK's Department for
Culture, Media and Sport found that fewer and fewer gambling operators are being
regulated in Britain since the implementation of the Gambling Act 2005 (in September
2007) and that no major remote gaming operators have chosen to relocate to the
UK.
The government has proposed to review the UK's regime so that offshore operators
would be required to obtain a license from the UK regulator in order to transact
with UK clients. The Treasury is also reviewing the case for changing the taxation
regime in line with these proposals and taxing operators on the basis of customer
location.
Presently gambling operators in the UK are required to pay gross profits tax
at 15% but under the proposals this tax could be reduced and offshore operators
would be required to contribute to UK coffers. Domestic operators in the UK
have long bemoaned the country's gambling tax regime, but for years pleas for
tax reform have fallen on deaf ears. Operators have increasingly looked to specialist,
low-tax territories, such Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, to relocate operations,
where operators benefit from substantially more favourable tax treatment with
profits subject to tax as low as 0%.
During his London vists Picardo also met with the leader of the opposition
Labour party, Ed Miliband, where the recent inflammatory comments made by Miliband
on the topic of 'tax havens' were discussed.
The Gibraltar government said the meeting presented an opportunity for the
territory to brief Miliband on the latest developments in Gibraltar and in particular
on the work of the finance centre as a fully compliant EU financial services
hub, which the government underscores "operates entirely in keeping with
EU directives and regulations", and is "fully compliant with OECD
rules" on tax transparency, and therefore not by any measure a 'tax haven'.
Miliband had earlier called for European Union decision makers to take action
against offshore territories such as the Crown Dependencies on tax evasion concerns.
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