In many countries across the world, betting sites and online casinos have been banned. However, this is not the case in the UK and slowly, it has become the focal point of the online gambling industry.
A large number of gambling corporations have based themselves in the UK and it provides a large source of tax revenue for the government. There are 2 main ways in which the UK government has encouraged gambling in this country and they could provide a basis for other countries to follow.
Deregulation of Gambling in the UK
The government first deregulated the gambling market, meaning that licenses were easy to get hold of and barriers to entry became extremely low in the market. The UK wanted to provide licenses to a large number of companies rather than them having to offshore abroad and not returning the money to the UK.
The market for gambling became a competitive market, meaning that individual gamblers would have a wide number of options to choose from. It makes it extremely difficult to avoid gambling in the UK as there are stores on pretty much every high street.
There are limits as well, such as bookies only being able to offer a certain number of fixed-odds terminals. Also, more limits are being put in place by the regulators in order to clamp down on problem gambling and Labour’s Deputy Leader, Tom Watson has been calling on the government and the gambling industry to do more to combat ‘problem gambling.’
Tax changes for Winnings from Casinos
One of the biggest changes taken by the government, was the removal of tax on any winnings earned by gamblers. Nowadays, taxes are only paid by the gambling companies rather than by winners who were faced with large tax bills. It now means that any money earned can be kept by the gambler. This has not only made it easier to gamble, but it has also made it much more appealing. There are also many people who now treat gambling as their main source of income.
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