
Scales of Justice: The GBGA launches a second appropriate challenge, this time from the point of usage tax.
The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA) has launched a 2nd challenge to the new British Gambling Bill, AKA the Gambling (Licensing & Advertising) Act, having seen its initial challenge thrown out of London High Court earlier into the month.
While the company’s first challenge contested the Act itself, the demand that is new a judicial review focuses solely regarding the new point of consumption income tax, which, as being a tax issue rather than a licensing issue, has been going right through separate legal procedures.
The point of consumption tax will introduce a 15 percent duty on all gambling operators that want to activate using the Uk market, each of whom must be licensed and regulated in the UK.
Yet again, the GBGA will argue that the legislation is unlawful and that the point of consumption income tax breaches Article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of this European Union, which deals using the movement that is free of across borders between EU member states.
Rogue Operators
‘This tax is a restriction on the conditions of solutions,’ stated the GBGA. ‘There are no equivalent precedents associated with the British Government seeking to tax entities abroad in respect of the supply of solutions into great britain without going right through the route that is appropriate of harmonization through the EU. This will be incompatible with Article 56.’
The GBGA disputes the assertion by the UK government that the new taxation regime is a way to protect customers, arguing that instead it will drive UK citizens towards ‘rogue operators.’
‘If responsible foreign operators are forced to raise prices (i.e., offer less favourable odds or even a high rake), it is inescapable that many consumers will relocate to companies with no regulation and reduced overheads,’ it stated. ‘Rogue operators will be beyond reach of UK law and customers will face increased dangers of fraud, non-payment and abuse.’
Smoking Gun
The relationship also contends that its position against the tax is stronger because of the High Court judgment this month. For A eu user state to restrict trade and be in breach of Article 56, it must have very sound reasons for doing so. And while Judge Justice Green rejected the GBGA’s arguments against the new licensing rules, he claimed that the inflammation of government coffers are not a justified reason to breach Article 56. This, the GBGA hopes, is the smoking gun. Then the only reason for the tax is to increase revenue, rendering it illegal, the GBGA will argue if the assertion is flawed that the new regime is to protect the customer.
‘The fact is that this tax regime has no legitimate purpose,’ said the GBGA. ‘Moreover, the income tax is discriminatory. European law supports our position. The Government says this tax ensures ‘respect for fiscal sovereignty’ and is required for the ‘coherence of UK income tax authority’. We believe what this means is their real aim is always to make sure that UK operators in this market are favored, at the cost of law-abiding and responsible operators outside of the UK.’
South African Gambling Board Suspended for Corruption
South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies, who suspend the nation’s entire gambling authority pending an investigation into numerous corruption fees. (Image: Trevor Samson/bdlive.co.za).
The whole South African Gambling Board has been suspended for becoming an so-called hotbed of corruption, mismanagement and spending that is wasteful according to the country’s trade and industry minister, Rob Davies.
Davies relieved the National Gambling Board of Southern Africa (NGB) of its authority month that is last although the reason why for the move were not made clear until last Friday, when the minister explained their decision in a letter to Parliament’s Trade and Industry Portfolio Committee.
Each of whom are personally appointed by Davies, is the failure to ‘prevent irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and making overdraft on the entity’s bank account minus the approval of this minister of finance. among the list of allegations against the members of the board’
According to Democratic Alliance person in Parliament Dean Macpherson, board members had allegedly ‘increased their remuneration by a staggering 46 % in the 2013/14 period.’ The body that is regulatory R2.7 million, or nearly $250,000, on travel over the course of the season, including more than $150,000 while attending a conference in Norway.
We did not understand there was even that much fun to be had in Norway.
Whistleblower
Furthermore, the board, ‘acting either individually or jointly,’ had allowed ‘members whose term of office had expired to carry on participating in the board’s activities and representing the NGB,’ a breach associated with the National Gambling Act. The alleged indiscretions were brought to the minister’s attention by the Auditor General.
But, Davies told the committee that he had also received a tip-off from the whistleblower who disclosed ‘alleged corrupt tasks concerning the nationwide Central Electronic Monitoring System’ and the ‘unlawful appointments of staff.’ The whistleblower had additionally revealed a culture of what the minister described, oddly, as ‘intimidation/bullying/disregard of constitution/witch-hunt’, aswell as alleged ‘theft of evidential material.’
Davies said the suspensions were ‘cautionary’ pending a ‘forensic investigation’ into the allegations. ‘[This] will mainly cover the assets for the National Gambling Board, and the minister has also appointed two administrators to oversee the day to day assess of the National Gambling Board,’ stated a spokesperson. ‘ We are able to say how long this may take.’ [sic]
The opposition Democratic Alliance said it would be asking Parliament when the investigation is probable to be completed and would demand that criminal fees are brought against anyone who has acted illegally.
South Africa’s Gambling Landscape
South Africa has a thriving casino that is land-based, with resorts like Sol Kerzer’s Sun City; a mammoth resort that was actually announced an unbiased state through the apartheid regime (a concession that allowed it to hold topless revue demonstrates that were banned elsewhere in Southern Africa). Gross gambling revenue for 2013-14 was $1.9 billion for the country that is entire with more than 75 % of that originating from the land-based casino industry, and the federal government benefited from $190 million in tax revenue.
While recreations wagering could be the only type of on line gambling that is currently legal in South Africa, the Trade and Industry Portfolio Committee is currently mulling over a draft gambling bill that would entirely open up the market, allowing provincial licensing authorities to issue as numerous remote gambling licenses as they wish. However, with the apparent intransigence of the ruling ANC on the issue, and the gambling that is entire suspended, don’t expect this to happen anytime soon.
New Jersey Mafia Bust Evidence that Sports Betting Needs Oversight, Says State AG
Acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman claims the Genovese Mafia ring was bringing in $1.7 million per year from illegal recreations ops that are betting. (Image: Don Smith/northjersey.com)
A New Jersey Mafia bust supports the theory that sports betting into the Garden State needs to be legalized to keep elements that are criminal, according to the state’s Acting Attorney General, John J. heart of vegas slots casino-aristocrat pokies Hoffman.
Speaking at a press conference in Newark this week, Hoffman said that the recent separation of a sports wagering and loan-sharking operation run by the notorious Genovese crime family highlights the need for recreations betting to be dragged ‘out of this shadows.’
‘We have talked before at length about among the main efforts in our sports betting journey that people have actually been on would be to try to take it out from the black colored market shadows,’ said Hoffman. ‘The Mafia, the crime that is organized controlled shadows. And this is exactly where it’s happening.’
Their terms echo those of former New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne, the man who signed casino gambling into law in the continuing state, who saw the utilization of rigorous gambling regulation as part of the fight against this new Jersey Mob, famously warning the Mafia to keep its ‘filthy fingers off Atlantic City.’
Multimillion Dollar Mafia Operation
Incumbent Governor Chris Christie a week ago approved a law that will permit sports wagering in nj at casinos and racetracks. Currently only four states that are US Nevada, Delaware, Montana and Oregon, have the ability to provide sports wagering lawfully under federal law. The Protection and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) makes it an offense that is criminal in the US; nevertheless, Christie’s law seeks to repeal the prohibition, effectively decriminalizing sports gambling within their state, which lawmakers see as an easy way a of revitalizing New Jersey’s lagging economy.
New York Harbor Waterfront Commissioner Michael Murphy told the assembled press that the Mafia operation was indeed bringing in just as much as $1.7 million a year from sports betting alone. The ring, it is believed, was in fact orchestrated by Vincent Coppola, the 37-year-old son of jailed Genovese capo Michael ‘Mikey Cigars’ Coppola. Murphy said that Coppola utilized a wire room in Costa Rica to process gambling transactions, while his henchmen in New Jersey vetted clients that are new enforced collections of gambling debts. While 11 individuals were arrested for involvement in the ring, Coppola stays at large.
Prohibition No Longer Working
‘ As soon as the mafia, when organized crime, gets control and makes money on illegal gambling, where does it get?’ asked Murphy. ‘It does not go to property taxation relief, it doesn’t head to senior residents, and Medicare or prescription programs. It goes to money laundering, it goes to the importation of heroin, and you can find children today that is dying nj-new jersey as a result,’ Murphy stated.
Murphy also drew a parallel between the outlawing of sports betting and that of liquor during the Prohibition era, which inadvertently allowed the Mafia to thrive through bootlegging operations. ‘People drink and people gamble,’ he said. ‘Some of this families that are nevertheless engaged in arranged crime today, several generations ago enjoyed enormous profits during a time when drinking was illegal.’
However, it would appear that not everyone in nj is persuaded by the arguments against the prohibition of sports gambling. A poll this conducted by Rutgers-Eagleton showed that while legalization is broadly supported by some 44 percent of New Jerseyans, another 31 percent said they thought it would make no difference, while 17 percent were staunchly against it week.