Saturday, March 24, 2007

A new 50% tax on the profits of larger casinos will reverse years of
favourable treatment for the gambling trade. Industry analysts are now
predicting a huge slump in investment in new and existing sites and said
Britain's first super-casino in Manchester could end up looking 'more like a
big shed full of gaming machines' than a Las Vegas-style palace. Casino
operators reacted with dismay, claiming the Chancellor's crackdown will
undermine the economic regeneration which other ministers have used to
justify a huge expansion in casinos Mr Brown, who was raised as a
Presbyterian - a church which fiercely opposed gambling - also announced a
15% tax level for on-line gambling operators. Betting and poker website
bosses have already indicated they will never relocate to Britain if faced
with such taxes, since foreign countries allow them to operate with low or
zero duty levels. Since Mr Brown's tax grab looks set to keep all operators
away, it has made a nonsense of the Government's efforts to introduce
tougher rules to regulate the fast-expanding online gaming sector. Tessa
Jowell had hoped to make Britain the capital of internet gaming, attracting
websites to base themselves here. That ambition now appears to be holed
below the waterline. The industry had expected the Chancellor to offer a
generous tax level to lure operators back to the UK but he has taken the
opposite approach, effectively banishing website operators.