The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association confirmed today that it will initiate legal proceedings if the UK decides to proceed with plans to tax and regulate online gambling in Great Britain at the point of consumption.
The industry body for the British overseas territory, where most of the UK’s leading online businesses are licensed, this morning urged the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee undertaking pre-legislative scrutiny of the UK government’s draft bill “to persuade the DCMS to abandon the regulatory changes proposed in the draft bill”.
The GBGA said in its submission on the Draft Gambling (Licensing & Advertising) Bill that: “In the event that the Government determines to proceed with the proposed legislation and fiscal reforms, the GBGA will regrettably have little alternative but to institute judicial review proceedings to challenge these measures.”
The GBGA, which raised a £500,000 legal fighting fund from its 24 members last year to challenge UK government plans to licence and tax remote gambling in Great Britain on a place-of-consumption basis, said today that the draft measures were “wholly disproportionate and irrational”, and based on a “perceived but unsubstantiated threat to UK consumers” under the current system.
The UK government is seeking to phase in the new regime by December 2014, replacing the current system introduced in 2007 under which operators licensed in EEA Member States, Gibraltar and on the UK government’s White List of approved jurisdictions can transact with British consumers and advertise in the UK.
The written evidence from the GBGA also criticised the UK seeking fundamental reforms of its gambling regulations at a time when the EU was formulating policy at the European level as being “ill-timed and counter intuitive”, and that the “retrograde” steps proposed were “unlawful in terms of EU, national and international law and are liable to successful legal challenge. ”
The GBGA said it had also been advised by legal counsel that proposals to exempt non-UK transactions from taxation was discriminatory and constituted an unlawful form of State aid. The plans would also have a severe impact on the economies of Gibraltar and Southern Spain, particularly the former, where online gambling accounted for 12% of all jobs and 15% of government receipts.
Head of the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority, Phill Brear, also provided evidence “from an operational and regulatory perspective”, concluding that the “the proposals contradict reality, research and the evidence base.” Brear said in his submission that more than half of the UK remote gambling addressed by the draft bill was based in Gibraltar.
Operators 888, Gala Coral, William Hill, Betfair, Rank, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes and bwin.party were among the 31 stakeholders and interested parties which submitted written evidence ahead of this morning’s scrutiny of the bill by MPs and peers, who quizzed industry lobby group the Remote Gambling Association, sporting integrity body the Sports Betting Group and Christian charity CARE.
The joint Commons and Lords Committee will report on the bill with suggested changes to its drafting and its provisions. While the government does not have to act on its recommendations, the Committee’s report usually shapes debate on the bill during its passage.
Article written by Stephen Carter
