The Gambling Commission is to give evidence to MPs on the government’s draft bill to regulate remote gambling in Great Britain on a place-of-consumption basis.
CEO of the Birmingham-based regulator Jenny Williams will appear as a witness at the Department of Media Culture and Sports Select Committee’s continuing pre-legislative scrutiny of the new bill tomorrow.
Also giving evidence on the on the Draft Gambling (Licensing & Advertising) Bill is senior civil servant Jonathan Stephens, permanent secretary at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the government department with oversight for gambling policy in the UK.
The Committee will take evidence from stakeholders and interested parties and 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.
The Commons Culture Media and Sport branded the Gambling Commission “an expensive, overly bureaucratic regulator in last July’s report on the 2005 Gambling Act. It also criticised government proposals for the regulation of UK online gambling from 2014, saying they “remain very unclear”.
The Select Committee’s last evidence session saw Clive Hawkswood of industry lobby group the RGA forced to defend his members against accusations that their opposition to the proposals was was rooted in tax avoidance. Lib Dem MP John suggested there was no difference between “Starbucks not paying their taxes and online arms of high street bookmakers choosing to move their businesses elsewhere to avoid paying that tax”.
Hawkwood had argued the government’s proposed place-of-consumption regime would ultimately saddle legitimate operators with an additional tax burden which would increase the attractiveness of betting on unlicensed sites for British consumers.
Ladbrokes and William Hill both called in their submissions for the eventual tax rate to be set at 5% of gross profits, with Paddy Power advocating for “an absorbable rate (5-8%).” The Irish operator said: “This encourages operators to remain within the boundaries set by the licensing regime without being overly disadvantaged compared to non-compliant operators.”
The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association has also confirmed 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.
Article written by Stephen Carter
