Ireland Hustles On Online Gambling Tax

Ireland, November 10, 2011


Minister of Ireland Michael Noonan said that they are still working on gambling legislation to tax online gambling bets placed in Emerald Isle, Ireland. The main reason of this is to regain revenues that are going outside their country and they are hoping that something will be accomplished this year. But Noonan have said that they will be having a hard time in getting those taxes and they were still working on something for them to regain those revenues.


He said that it's really a tough work because when Irish citizens start to gamble at online casino sites, online poker rooms, and sports betting sites that are located overseas, the transactions are automatically processed outside Ireland and Irish people are required to follow the jurisdiction of a foreign government.


In this matter, Ireland has no right to interfere in any transaction that will take place. That is the main reason why it would be difficult for Ireland to tax those kinds of transactions.


Licensing is one way that Noonan is planning to bring revenue from transactions with foreign companies where companies from foreign countries that are going to accept transactions from Irish customers would require to get license from the government of Ireland in order for them to start the negotiation.


In addition to this, the bill would require them to pay on any bets placed by Irish citizens. The amount of duty is not yet confirmed because they need to discuss this thing carefully for they had some issues about getting tax from gambling few years ago when they lowered the local betting duties from 2% to 1% that caused a huge revenue drop from €54 million in 2007 to €30 million in 2010.


This problem is not only occurring in Ireland, but also in all countries around the globe. And because of the boundless nature of internet, people are able to gamble through internet casinos and play their favorite casino games even if that particular website is located anywhere in the world which causes problems same as Ireland is facing.

The only way for a country to get online gambling taxes from an internet casino is if that particular gambling site is operating in that country or if the transaction has been made under the jurisdiction of that country. However, it's really hard to do if the company is located overseas or under by foreign jurisdiction.


Noonan is confident that the bill will solve the problem and will bring major changes in online gambling industry in Ireland. I'll be monitoring this online gambling news and I will give you some updates on the following days.