M ONT H I N M I NUT ES
RIGHT TO
MONTH IN NUMB3RS
Gibraltar operators prepare legal case SEK127.5m to stall tax proposal
Net Entertainment’s ?rst-quarter operating revenues, up 33.9% year-on-year.
Turn to p40 for our interview with the company’s new chief executive
> Jason Chess > Partner and head of betting and gaming at Wiggin
The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA) has spent more than £500k on hiring two QCs in order to prepare a legal case in a bid to stall or overturn the UK government’s proposals to tax UKlicensed operators at the point of consumption. The government looks set to face a challenge on another area of tax policy – its declared intention to tax offshore gambling companies who currently pay no tax on their earnings from their British punters. At present, gambling companies based in other EU states, as well as in certain favoured jurisdictions like Gibraltar, Alderney, Antigua, Tasmania and the Isle of Man, pay no tax to the British exchequer when they accept gambling business from punters based in the UK. This position contrasts with countries like France, Italy, Spain and Denmark where you have to obtain a local licence and pay local tax in order to accept gambling business from residents of those countries. The government now seeks to reverse its policy and require offshore gambling companies to licence here and pay tax here on their UK business, regardless of where they are located in the world, but EU law would only allow this on grounds of public interest and social good – not on the desire to raise taxes alone, which is the government’s stated aim. Now, a group of gambling companies based in Gibraltar are ?nancing a challenge to the Government’s plans, and legal opinion is that they may well succeed. Perhaps the planned gambling tax will go the same way as the planned pasty tax.
ROY THE REDEEMER:
Paddy Power erected a 108ft statue of ‘England’s saviour’ Roy Hodgson on the cliffs of Dover. The statue, based on Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, can be seen from France in the hope that “the looming face of Roy the Redeemer would unsettle ‘Les Bleus’” ahead of England’s opening game against the French.
5%
Amount of Spain’s gross gambling win generated via interactive channels in 2011. Turn to p22 to read more on the Spanish egaming market
€40m
Amount bwin.party plans to invest in social gaming in the next two years.
Turn to p16 to read more
“What planet are the Gambling Commission on that they think it is a good idea, midway through a judicial review, [into their decision] to license the Health Lottery”
Sir Stephen Bubb, CEO of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations on the Health Lottery's remote casino licence
turn to page 20
25 -1
Odds offered on Patrik Selin being the next gaming firm CEO to leave. Sadly for Bodog it came true. Turn to
p66 for TSG
WIN INTERACTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM:
FAMILY TREE
Win Interactive is the newly-formed social gaming divison of bwin.party, launched in May 2012 following the acquisition of Orneon Ltd. It is led by co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger.
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