Betting tax in the Irish casino news again

We have lost count of how many times we have reported in our Irish casino news section the fact that the Government wants to receive something from the huge increase in online casino business but now it seems that the whole thing has gone one step farther by being included in a budget. Irish casino news has learned that Michael Noonan who is the Finance Minister has included a 1% tax in his budget on online and telephone betting plus he wants to impose a 15% levy on offshore companies which considering that even Paddy Power Casino and Ladbrokes Casino, the two most popular online casinos in Ireland, operate from offshore is an interesting move. We believe from previous Irish news articles that both Ladbrokes and Paddy Power are quite willing to pay the 1% tax but at the same time insist that there is a level playing field and that they are not alone in paying the tax which is where presumably the other 15% levy comes in. Needless to say that although Mr Noonan is in the Irish casino news for including the tax and levy in his budget there is as yet no detail about how this levy might be collected or if indeed he expects offshore casinos to report how much income or business they have derived from customers inside Ireland; it would seem to us quite unreasonable to expect offshore based online casinos to report accurate figures and then there is of course the problem of how much income Irish based online gambling derives from overseas customers. The one sensible thing that could be pursued and is also included in the casino news is to tax betting exchanges in the same way as bookmakers (betting exchanges currently pay no tax). We shall report further developments in our Irish casino news section but we envisage this legislation being a long time in the making..