U.K. to lure online casinos

The finance minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, is proposing next month a plan to allure the offshore online casinos with the benefit of getting license in U.K. and pay tax between 2%-3% on their revenue. It would be called the "Remote Gambling Duty" and will allow the online casinos to have legal presence in the U.K. without having to pay the value added tax (VAT) which the offline companies do. The current Internet gambling laws, which should be in effect this September, do require the online casinos to pay the high VAT, and this proposed amendment would take care of this tax, which has become an issue for the offshore Internet casinos. Ladbrokes, one of the biggest English bookmakers, both online and offline, has expressed willingness to obtain the license should the amendment pass and the tax is less than 3%. It is expected that a small tax would encourage more online casinos and other gambling websites to apply for a license and would make the industry much more transparent and under supervision, which would greatly benefit the customer.