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Tax hike jitters spread
The uncertainty surrounding the impending increase to the UK’s Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) has grown to geopolitical proportions, with Gibraltar’s Gaming Commissioner Andrew Lyman publicly warning that a disproportionate tax increase could severely damage the territory’s economy.
loss of bottom-line profit”
Lyman, who also serves as a Non-Executive Director for the Independent Betting Adjudication Service, broke from his usual political silence to warn via LinkedIn that the industry cannot “absorb significant top-line tax rises” without suffering broader structural damage and “loss of bottom-line profit.”
Lyman’s major worry for Gibraltar comes from the British Overseas Territory’s deep economic reliance on the remote gambling sector, evidenced by its hosting of dual-regulated UK-focused iGaming giants bet365 and BetVictor.
Between them, the pair collectively contribute around £750m ($986.5m) annually to the UK Treasury, which the industry fears will raise taxes when Chancellor Rachel Reeves announces the UK budget on November 26.
RGD lifeblood
Gibraltar’s financial self-sustainability rests on the continued health of its gambling industry. Stating that while Gibraltar could get away with a modest RGD increase, rates approaching the popularly proposed 40% would risk “irrecoverable damage to the sector,” Lyman said on LinkedIn.
surge in black-market gambling is “real and apparent”
Lyman believes the political mileage made from dismissing industry warnings, such as the one made by gambling trade body CEO Grainne Hurst as “scaremongering,” doesn’t disguise the threat of gambling sector job losses, and that a surge in black-market gambling is “real and apparent.”
The territory’s gaming commissioner concluded by stating that genuine political support for Gibraltar would be best demonstrated by “creating conditions that allow the Gibraltar economy to be self-sustaining.”
Ripple effect
Chancellor Reeves’s looming tax decision in under two weeks will therefore have a ripple effect extending beyond Westminster and, if the percentages are too onerous, will directly test the economic stability of Gibraltar.
Ultimately, a tax hike that prompts an exodus of major gambling firms could undermine the territory’s foundation of economic autonomy.
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