Gaming Archives - Page 6 of 10

Romanian government publishes plan for 40% tax on withdrawals

The Romanian government has published the country’s new draft Fiscal Code, featuring a tax hike on gambling withdrawals to as much as 40%.

The new code was published by the Ministry of Finance, and contains updates to the country’s tax laws.

Previously, gambling withdrawals in Romania of less than RON66,750 (£11,579/€13,493/$13,980) were taxed at 1%, while withdrawals of up to RON445,000 faced a 16% tax – plus an additional payment of RON667.50 and withdrawals beyond that total were taxed at 25%.

However, now withdrawals of up to RON3,000 will be taxed at 10%. Withdrawals of more than RON3,000 but no more than RON10,000 are taxed at 20%, plus a RON3000 fee. Beyond RON10,000, the tax rate will be 40%, plus a RON1,700 fee.

The tax will be applied with each withdrawal.

When the tax hike was first reported, trade body the Association of Remote Gambling Organisations (AOJND) said that it would push players towards illegal operators.

It estimated that – if the tax comes into effect – ..

June 28, 2022

Towards intolerance of illegal operators

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Illegal online gambling remains a threat to both player protection and government tax yields. Yet, as Paul Girvan explains, most regulated jurisdictions continue to tolerate operators making money outside of the regulatory environment. Could more be done to fight the unlicensed sector?

Online gambling has existed since the inception of the internet, and over time we have seen increasing concern arise from the issue of black market gambling.

Equally, nearly all countries implementing legal market controls have encountered rising rates of gambling harm and negative social consequences, the causes for many of which remain outside the licensed market.

While there is much talk about the “licensed level playing field”, it’s hard to see how any marketplace is effectively levelled to the benefit of any parties if it tolerates the presence of the illicit black market. These shadow operators reap a competitive advantage as their regulated competitors pay a licence fee and taxes and comply wi..

June 28, 2022

Laos to mimic POGO model with new offshore licences

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Laos is set to regulate online gambling, setting up a regime where operators licensed in the country targeting markets elsewhere in Southeast Asia such as Thailand.

In a model similar to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), operators that receive a licence may set up an online gambling operation, but may not accept customers who are based in Laos.

Danny Too, a consultant assisting the Laotian government on the process, told iGB that the government is currently in the process of drawing up its regulations for the sector.

He said that the government had planned to publish guidelines to apply for licences in two months’ time.

According to Too, initial master licences are set to be issued to a small number of businesses, which can then contract out “sub-licences” to a wider number of businesses, similar to the model in Curaçao.

Too noted that this was due in part to the effects of Covid-19, which was devastating to Laos’ foreigner-only land-based casinos.

“During the pandemi..

June 24, 2022

KSA chair Jansen questions whether industry is “capable of self-regulation”

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

René Jansen, chair of Dutch regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has questioned whether self-regulation is possible within the gambling industry, as he expressed his continued frustration with operators that “look for the edges of the law”.

In a blog post, Jansen looked back on a roundtable discussion on gambling in the House of Representatives, in which he participated.

This discussion noted the success of the country’s online gambling regime in channeling players to licensed offerings since the market launched in October 2021. However, it also noted areas where there was room for improvement.

In particular, Jansen said one issue that became obvious in the discussion was “the behavior of some legal operators, who – unfortunately – did look for the edges of the law”.

As a result of this, Jansen said he had his doubts about whether it was possible for the industry to regulate itself.

“This raises the question of the extent to which the sector as a whole is capable of self-regulat..

June 23, 2022

Kyrgyz parliament votes to legalise casinos and igaming for foreigners

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Kyrgyzstan’s legislature has voted to re-legalise land-based gambling and launch online casino for the first time, though all offerings will only be available to foreign players.

The bill “On Gambling in the Kyrgyz Republic” – passed on its third reading – would legalise a wide range of forms of gambling. As well as casinos, slot halls and retail bookmakers – which had all been legal in the past before casinos were banned in 2012 and the latter two banned in 2015 – online casino games will also be legal.

However, all gambling will only be available to foreign players.

Land-based casinos must only be set up in restaurants or hotel complexes. The restaurant must have at least 100 seats, and the hotel must have at least 20 rooms. Slot halls, meanwhile, must be separate rooms or buildings from any other type of business activity.

Casinos located in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek must have at least 10 gaming tables, while those elsewhere must have at least five. Slot halls must contain a..

June 20, 2022

Italy stems flow of year-to-year drops in igaming GGR

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Italian igaming revenue rose year-on-year in April for the first time since November 2021. However, this figure was down month-on-month.

Italy’s igaming market revenue declined slightly month-on-month, at €292.2m in April compared to March’s €302.4m. This meant that revenue was up year-on-year for the first time in six months, after revenue came to €288.1m in April 2021.

This decline has been mostly driven by a 6.7% fall in online sports betting, with revenue now sitting at €118.9m: its lowest level since October 2021. This was still above the €103.6m recorded in April 2021, however.

Though online casino revenue remained stable, there were some interesting movements between operators within the market.

The biggest four online casino operators by GGR all lost ground to their competitors, Sisal and Snai being the worst affected as they drop to 8.5% and 8.3% market shares respectively, while Pokerstars’ share declined to 8.8% and Lottomatica 7.3%.

In contrast, on the online sports b..

June 17, 2022

Low betting margins continue to hinder Spanish industry in Q1

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Gambling revenue in Spain was down year-on-year again in Q1 of 2022, due to continued anaemic sports betting margins.

According to data from regulator the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), gross gaming revenue was down by 14.8% to €204.4m. However this marked a 16.3% quarter-on-quarter increase.

Revenue fell despite an increase in stakes, which grew 5.3% year-on-year to €7.41bn, a new record high. Deposits, meanwhile, grew by 4.3% year-on-year – or 7.1% quarter-on quarter – to €769.8m.
A similar trend emerged in 2021, when revenue was down despite a significant increase in stakes.

Breaking down revenue by vertical, sports betting revenue continued to be low at €65.2m, a 40.9% fall from Q1 2021, but up 49.1% from Q4 of that year.

Sports betting stakes remained high at €3.06bn, up 10.6% year-on-year, as it had done in H2 2021. This suggests a sports betting margin of just 2.1%. Margins were low across all sports, but lowest in horse racing at 1.4%.

House-banked casi..

June 17, 2022

Kindred to withdraw from Germany

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Kindred brand Unibet will exit the German market on 1 July blaming the slow progress of licensing and onerous regulatory restrictions.

The operator said it had taken the “difficult decision” to withdraw its application for sportsbook and virtual slots licences, and cease all operations from 1 July.

“Our long-term strategic direction sets out locally regulated markets as the core engine for our growth, however licence application procedures, licence conditions, and the regulatory environment need to be transparent, sustainable, and financially viable for a market to be competitive,” Kindred explained.

It said the current application processes, and the terms and restrictions for product offerings, meant the regulated market was not sustainable nor competitive enough to withstand offshore competition.

“Therefore, we do not see a foundation for long-term shareholder value and customer experience at the moment.”

As its current operations in Germany are limited, the withdrawal would ..

June 14, 2022

Rhodes reveals Gambling Commission plans to “ramp up” enforcement

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

Gambling Commission chief executive officer, Andrew Rhodes says the regulator will escalate penalties for failings, adopt more “prescriptive” approach to customer interaction and “ramp up” enforcement if industry continues to fail to live up to the Commission’s standards.

Rhodes made the remarks at the Westminster Media Forum Regulation Conference, where he spoke on the current state of the landscape in the industry ahead of the release of the Gambling Act review white paper. Rhodes hinted that the contents of the white paper should not necessarily be a surprise to anyone paying attention to the GC’s public comments.

“On behalf of the Gambling Commission, without waiting for what the white paper may bring, I can give you an overview on what we think needs to happen to make gambling in Great Britain as fair and safe as it can be, and what our next steps are to achieving that,” said Rhodes.

However, the regulator also said again that the regulator will not wait for the review to chan..

June 9, 2022

NatCen study claims 10% of online accounts responsible for 79% of GGY

Sports Betting News Bookiecity

A new study conducted by NatCen for GambleAware claims that 79.0% of online operator revenue comes from the highest-staking 10% of accounts, with online slots showing a particularly concentrated spending pattern.

The study used records from seven online operators, which each provided data about 20,000 accounts active between July 2019 and June 2019. These seven operators together made up more than 85% of the UK betting market, though only 37.5% of the gaming market.

It then weighted the data from these accounts to be representative of the overall online gambling market.

For each customer, NatCen had access to betting data showing the exact date, time and stake of all bets placed by each customer, while for gaming, data was split into 15-minute windows.

For both online betting and gaming, the research found that revenue at these operators was highly concentrated among a relatively small share of accounts.

Overall, it found that the 10% of gamblers with the largest stakes – all stak..

Tag Archives: Gaming