Irish online casino not affected by UK tax rises

The general casino news at the moment seems to be taken up by online casino companies complaining about the recent moves by the UK Government to increase taxes. Although not directly affecting online casinos and also not Irish casinos it is the FOBTs which have come in for treatment with the tax rising from the 20% which was introduced in February 2013 to 25% from March 2015. Despite bookmakers often reporting that the online casino and online gambling side of the business is increasing every year it seems that that these Fixed Odds Betting Machines are a major source of income. These machines are supposed to be a problem because people are able to gamble large amounts in a short period of time but as Casinos.ie has pointed out before, every online casino has that same opportunity if you want to play maximum stakes however whereas online casinos have very narrow margins on casino games such as roulette it is clear that these FOBTs must have a much lower pay back in order to pay the tax. A second whammy also in the casino news is again something which has been discussed at casinos.ie is the online gambling tax for companies based overseas which is all of them. Rumours have been circulating in the Irish casino news for some time about introducing such a tax in Ireland but in the UK the budget confirmed that this will go ahead in December this year. If it is successful it is difficult to see the Irish Government not wanting to follow suit for the extra income it could provide. Possible good news for Bingo players that do not play online bingo at their online casinos is that tax on bingo halls will be reduced from 20% to 10% but whether this will entice players back to the halls and away from online casinos is doubtful.