Key Takeaways
- A report by Deloitte and the Spanish Association of Online Gaming (JDigital) points out that online gambling in Europe’s most regulated markets is a losing proposition.
- In a comparative study it shows that in the UK, Italy, France and Denmark it is extremely difficult to make a profit after gaming taxes.
- The report recommends cutting Spain’s gaming tax from 25% to 10%.
- Together with other tax changes, it argues that this is necessary to protect the Spanish gaming industry, deter gray market operators and generate the tax revenues the government wants.
- It also argues that cross border playing pools are essential to create liquidity in peer to peer games such as online poker.
It is necessary to insist, as a fundamental point of the report, on the fact that a tax reduction does not necessarily decrease revenue for the Treasury
A new report by Deloitte and the Spanish Association of Online Gaming (JDigital) points out that online gambling in Europe’s regulated markets is a losing proposition for the operator. The report focuses on Spain where operators made net losses of €72.5m last year.
Annexes to the report show that similar situations prevail elsewhere. In France, ARJEL’s annual report for 2012 showed its licensees lost a total of €168m, €68m from poker.
