The UK wants to regulate gambling beyond its borders

Does London want cleaner gaming, or just a bigger share of the take?

Britain’s House of Commons has been discussing a bill that will potentially make it a legal requirement for offshore gambling companies with British customers to pay fifteen per cent in taxes on revenues raised in Britain.

The bill is the latest attempt by the British government to exert greater control over the offshore gaming giants, many of which, like Ladbrokes and William Hill are themselves British, though acting through offshore subsidiaries. In 2001 Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government reached a so-called ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with English bookmakers, which led to many returning to British soil – only to leave again when the gambling tax was more than doubled.

More recently, in December 2012, the Department for Media, Culture and Sport proposed that remote gambling be regulated on the basis of point of consumption so as to “help fight illegal activities and corruption in sports betting” and “protect British consumers” in the words of Hugh Robertson, then Minister for Sport and Tourism.

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