This story is sponsored by Betfair
Spain’s last-minute tax-grab from from online operators hoping to secure licences on 1 June reached €60m yesterday after Betfair announced it “will be making a payment of not more than €10 million”.
PokerStars, 888 and bet365 are also expected to pay substantial settlements to clear the way for their licences to be issued on 1 June, taking the Spanish government’s anticipated tax windfall to well over €100m, but only 888 as a public company is under any obligation to disclose the tax hit.
Earlier this week, bwin.party and Sportingbet announced they had also completed tax self-assessments under retroactively applied 1966 and 1977 laws, and were paying up to €33m and €17.2m to settle the matter and ensure they are first into the regulated market at the start of next month.
Major European operators have also been paying 20-25% on gross profit from the market from last May when the Spanish Gaming Act was passed.
Betfair added yesterday that it would be making its betting exchange unavailable to Spain upon its expected receipt of a licence on 1 June, at which point it would switch players across to its new sportsbook, which went live on its dot.com site yesterday.
With the regulation of betting exchanges already included in primary legislation, the operator said the Spanish regulator had recently reiterated their intention to start towards the licensing of exchange betting and casino slot games after the initial licences had been issued next month.
The austerity driven tax-grab from the Spanish tax office came less than three weeks before the country’s regulator was due to issue the country’s first online gaming licences covering the offer of sports betting and casino table games, including poker. Betting exchanges, in-play, slots and bingo were not however included in the first round of licensing.
Bet365, Ladbrokes, 888, William Hill and Paddy Power have also applied to enter the regulated Spanish market.
