- The UK House of Lords has voted its final approval of the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) bill that will require operators with UK customers to have a license from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
- The bill will now go to the House of Commons for its final reading and vote, before coming into law, sometime before the House of Parliament breaks for its Summer recess.
The UK House of Lords has voted its final approval of the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) bill that will require operators with UK customers to have a license from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
Only two amendments were debated: one to do with a horse racing levy, and one concerning gambling advertising. The advertising amendment was rejected, although the UKGC has said that it will conduct a review, to report by the end of the year, which will contain proposals to deal with the issues raised.
The bill will now go to the House of Commons for its final reading and vote, before coming into law, sometime before the House of Parliament breaks for its Summer recess.
The second to the UK’s new regulatory strategy is a Treasury bill which will impose a point of consumption (POC) tax. The POC will apply to revenues generated by UK customers and the Treasury appears set on an initial rate of 15%.
An incentive for companies to bring their gambling revenues onshore is that the new tax will only apply to income generated by UK customers—there will be no gaming taxes on operator’s overseas customers.
The Gibraltar government has seen this as a threat to its own status as a gambling business centre, although at least one major operator, William Hill, has said that it will not be leaving the “Rock” to return to the UK when the new laws are implemented.
