Irish Bookmakers—Online (Question)

[Tony25]

I notice Ireland have stuck with traditional methods when licensing Bookmakers, ie Betting act 1931, Gaming and Lotteries 1956-2003 and they have no clear definition with regard to Online/Remote betting.

The likes of PaddyPower/Bruce betting process bets in Ireland but the transaction takes place in Isle of Man, Sean Graham takes online bets using their UK licence, Terry Rogers and Hacketts appear to use their Irish licence (For taking online Bets)………..is that true?

Are companies like Power/Bruce transfering bets in order to pay lower taxes? or because current legislation doesn`t allow them to àccept bets from an internet audience, ie is this the interpretation of their lawyers?

If its nothing to do with legislation why would Sean Graham rather pay 15% of the win as opposed to 1% on turnover, do they have an online margin of less that 6.67% or do they prefer paying UK corporation tax (28%) compared to Irelands 12.5%?

If i was involved with Bookmaking i would rate Ireland the 2nd best licence within the EU after Malta (0.5% betting tax and 5% corporation if properly planned), Gibraltar as a lower corporation tax than Ireland but i would worry about double tax agreements (or lack of them), i guess Curacao could come into the calcualtion if you believe that they are EU through Holland and if you believe their vote on soveriegnty will be positive in December,Isle of Man is not EU,Cyprus can`t get it together,Estonia have a minimum age requirement of 21,Bulgaria is mafia country and Slovakia are struggling to put legislation together,the rest of the EU is high tax or restrictions!!

Why don`t remote Bookmaking operators use Ireland?, surely theirs an experienced pool of employees available,telecommunications infrasture is better than Malta,licensing procedure is uncomplicated?

Maybe it should be promoted better

[davidbrady]

Where did you get your 5% corporation tax rate Tony?

[Tony25]

Hi David,

I said Malta was 5% (35-30 = 5%) subject to not taking bets from Maltese (gauranteed upto 2012), no reclaims on VAT !

Ireland i said is 12.5%……………assume im right?

[davidbrady]

Yeah 12.5% is correct – I misunderstood your original statement.

I’m not familiar the legislation so can’t comment on that I’m afraid although I would be 99% confident that most UK bookmakers would have looked at Ireland before Malta.

There was something on the Betfair forum a while back which said that the levy in Ireland had decreased from 3% to 2% (or 2% to 1%) but that this it was now no longer tax deductible. I don’t know how true this is though.

[Author]

Posts