by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Mar 22, 2012 | Updated on Mar 22, 2012Playing online poker in the UK is a beloved pastime by a majority of citizens. The UK government is well aware of this and they do a fairly good job at regulating and controlling the gaming industry. In the annual budget, released by the Chancellor, there is a section that requires all offshore gambling entities to pay taxes on the services they offer to United Kingdom citizens.Governments all over the world place taxes on online gambling and this is really not too much different than most other nations. The reason people are getting upset is because this new legislation completely contradicts the one that was released by Gordon Brown back in 2007. Brown, who was chancellor at the time, introduced a law that required all English-based gambling companies to pay a 15% tax on any and all revenue earned from UK citizens. No one was too shaken up about this legislation because as soon as the gambling companies such as William Hill and Ladbrokes heard about it, they simply moved their operations outside of the UK, and boom, taxes were non-existent once more and they were still able to offer services to citizens in the United Kingdom.Bet 365 was one of the few operators that remained in England back in 2007 and they are happy about that now because all the operators that moved offshore will be taxed anyway thanks to this new legislation. While the taxation rates have not been introduced yet, we can count on seeing them before the year’s end. It is not clear at this point how, or if, this will have any negative effects on the average online poker player in the UK or if it will change the way things work at all.We will keep you up to date on this legislation as it develops further.
