Talk in the gambling news once more about tax on online gambling

After months or even years of talking about taxation of gambling it seems that Michael Noonan, the Finance Minister has grabbed the attention of the Irish gambling news by putting in his budget plans to impose a 1% tax on online gambling and telephone gambling plus a 15% charge on profits made by offshore firms from Irish players but of course it is not yet clear how this proposal is to be introduced and the devil will be in the detail. General gambling news has already written on this subject so it comes as no real surprise but there are stumbling blocks that need to be overcome not the least of which is how to collect the charge from offshore companies. The major gambling bookmakers in this country including Ladbrokes and Paddy Power are reported in the gambling news as being quite willing to pay the duty but they are of course also insisting that a level playing field be created otherwise they will have no choice but to move overseas themselves with subsequent job losses which is hardly what the Finance Minister wants. The new legislation in the gambling news would also place a levy on commissions earned by betting exchanges which at the moment is zero. The gambling companies have responded in the gambling news by asking that nothing be done until the detail is worked out and point out that the difficulty of obtaining information on how much Irish gamblers win or lose on offshore based gambling; it seems unreasonable for the gambling companies themselves to be asked for the detail but for the gambling public there is no immediate concern as the tax or levy would be paid by the gambling company and not by the individual punter. We shall try to keep you updated in our Irish gambling news section.