The UK government has recently decided to implement a point of consumption tax for offshore gambling operators. This would mean that companies located in Gibraltar, Malta and the Isle of Man will have to pay additional taxes for offering their services to UK players. The idea has been unpopular among offshore operators like William Hill and Ladbrokes, and they are likely to express their opinions during the consultation period.

The consultation period started this week and will be closed on June 28. During this time, any stakeholders in the online gambling market will be able to voice their opinions about the new tax. They will make recommendations about what should and should not be included in the legislation, in order to create a new tax scheme that will satisfy all parties.

The decision to create the point-of-consumption tax came just months after the UK’s last large locally-based operator made the move to an offshore location. Companies that did not have the money to move offshore were finding that they could not compete with companies like William Hill and Ladbrokes, who were subject much lower gambling taxes. So, the government hopes that the new legislation will even out the playing field – while reclaiming some lost gaming tax revenue.

The UKIPT Nottingham has gotten off to a great start. With a £1 million guarantee, over 1500 players from across the country and continent have showed up at the doorstep of Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham. The event promises some real excitement for all those involved, as the event has sold out, and there are even some additional players on the ‘alternates’ list.

The UKIPT Nottingham is the first event in UKIPT history to guarantee this large of a prize pool. With the main event winner taking home over £250 000, competition is fierce. On Day 1A, over 400 players were eliminated from the vast list of runners and Day 2A is expected to see a similar result.

Some of the biggest players in the Poker Tour circuit have showed up to the event, including Jamie Burland, who recently won the UKIPT Brighton. There are many other poker celebrities in the building also fighting it out for the chance to win the biggest main event prize in the UKIPT’s history.

We are excited to see how the action unfolds over the course of the next few days. Stay tuned for updates on the UKIPT Nottingham on Casinos.org.uk.

Over the course of the past few years, bookmakers have taken quite a lot of heat for supposedly targeting poverty-stricken areas. However, the Association of British Bookmakers has announced that this simply is not the case, as there is no real evident that shows that low income earners are the target of their practices.

Councillor Nilgun Canver claimed that betting shops and their owners target the poorest areas of St Ann’s, but Dirk Vennick of the British Bookmakers Association disagrees. He does not believe that there betting shops prey on low-income individuals, believing that it a simple leisure activity that does not aim to harm anyone.

“Betting shops offer a mainstream leisure product to adults who choose to use them,” says Vennick. “Similar to a couple of pints in the pub”.

However, according to a recent survey, the number of betting shops in poorer areas is much higher than in more affluent neighbourhoods. For example, there are 40 bookmakers in Tottenham but just 1 or 2 in areas like Fortis Green and High Gate.

Regardless, officials state that there is no correlation between the number of bookmakers in an area and its total income. The debate is likely to spark studies that seek to prove or disprove these claims.

Birmingham will be the new site of one of the biggest gambling centres in Europe, as Genting Casinos’ proposal to build a new venue in the city has been approved. It will be a multi-million pound project that will create thousands of new jobs and boost the local economy, according to Genting.

Reports state that the new gambling centre will be built on the grounds of the National Exhibition Centre, a central location in one of the UK’s busiest cities. The construction of the venue will cost about £120 million, making it one of the most expensive undertakings for Genting Casinos.

The construction of the new gambling centre is exciting, as it will be the first venue of its kind in the UK. While there are plenty of casinos in the country, it lacks the sort of Las Vegas-style gambling centres that we see across the United States. It will certainly help to bring in a great deal of tourism to Birmingham, and we are excited to see just how this pans out.

This week at the EPT Campione, the UK was expected to fare well with hundreds of runners from the country entered into the competition. With nearly a dozen UK players making it to Day 2, it was expected that a Brit would take home the main event prize – but that wasn’t the case.

Instead, Danish player Jannick Wrang won the event, taking home an impressive £530 000 prize. His win completes a hat-trick for Danish poker players in the EPT this year. Two other players from Denmark won the main event of previous EPT events so far in 2012, marking the country as a force to be reckoned with in the world of poker.

Wrang started out the final position in third place, but quickly managed to beat out some of his most talented peers to make it to the top. By the end of the tournament, he had knocked out Fabrice Soulier and Balazs Botond, two of Europe’s most talented poker players.

Wrang’s win also brings his total tournament winnings up to over £1 million, establishing him as an up-and-comer in the European poker world. He has not announced any further plans for tournaments this year, but we suspect that Wrang will be making more EPT appearances.

The UK Government has just increase the tax on gaming machines across the country, and operators are not impressed. It is yet another decision from the UK government to extract even more funds from the country’s gambling market, but it comes at the expense of gaming clubs.

The new Machine Games Duty will replace the existing VAT and Amusement Machine License Duty. It will result in a 3% increase for club operators, which will accumulate over time. When the government makes small tax increases, the change seems very minimal, but over the course of a year, it can result in some huge losses for the industry.

For example, companies like William Hill and Ladbrokes will lose over £10 million each as a result of the new tax. It will also cause the loss of over 1000 jobs and the possible closure of 2000 venues.

Some operators believe that the tax increase will mean the end of the amusement gaming market in the UK. However, this may be what the government had in mind, as residents have been complaining about the increase in betting shops and gaming clubs on high streets recently.

Last month, the television show that the UK Gambling Commission was most focused on was Simon Cowell’s Red Or Black. Now, the commission has set its sight on Deal or No Deal, claiming that the popular game show may encourage the development of unhealthy perspectives on gambling.

This week, the professionals from the UK Gambling Commission will meet with television executives from Channel and Endemol to discuss the issue at hand. The Gambling Commission believes that the show portrays gambling in an unrealistic light, as players can win large sums of money without displaying any sort of skill.

If the UK Gambling Commission’s suspicious are correct, then Deal or No Deal would be classified as illegal gambling in the UK. If that is the case, there is no word yet on how the commission will proceed, but we are nervous that it would mean the show would be taken off of the air.

At this point, it seems that the Commission is grasping at straws. Its concerns with Red or Black seemed rooted in actual evidence, as the television show was directly based on Roulette. Deal or No Deal, which has been around for years, is not related to any particular gambling activity, and it would be a shame if it were taken off of the air.

The UK has is a high rate of citizens in debt, according to a recent study. Cooperative Bank has put together a report that highlights just how serious the issue of debt is across the country. According to the report, over 70% of individuals are experience debt problems, and 10% use gambling to deal with them.

The average amount of debt accumulated is about £1050, and the majority of individuals have trouble paying it off. Cooperative Bank uses the term DRIP to illustrate how UK citizens are dealing with their debt:

Deny their debt
Rationalize why they are in debt
Ignore their debt
Postpone paying it off

The other issue at hand is that many individuals use gambling in order to help them pay it off. While the lottery is a popular choice, some individuals play casino games and poker. Safe gambling groups recommend that residents only gamble with money that can be afforded to be lost. Players should budget their gambling expenditures based on their leisure cash; otherwise, they could sink further into debt.

Over the course of the past month, residents of the UK have been making a wide range of complaints about gambling advertisements. While most of them simply concern the vast number of ads that appear on television, some of them are more specific. This time, Paddy Power has been singled out, after airing an advertisement that has been deem discriminatory against transgendered people.

The commercial advertises Ladies Night at Cheltenham. Paddy Power asks viewers to “tell the stallions from the mares”, mixing some transgendered women into the racing day crowd. During the advertisement, several women are shown as the voiceover guesses “man” or “woman”.

Channel 4 has pulled the advertisements as many complaints were made about the commercial being transphobic. Several advocacy groups filed complaints with the gambling commission, Channel Four and Clearcast – and Channel 4 decided it would be best if it no longer aired the ad.

According to Clearcast, the advertisement was screened and approved by a local transgendered advocacy group. However, that has not stopped transgendered individuals from across the country from being outraged.

There is no word yet on whether or not the actual Ladies Day event will be cancelled.

The UK Gambling Commission has just received word that Gala Coral is planning on taking its online gambling operations offline. The company has recently announced that it simply cannot compete with existing offshore gambling operators and have decided to bite the bullet.

This will mean that the last major UK gambling operator has finally left the market. Ladbrokes, William Hill and now Gala Coral will have now left the country for greener pastures. This comes as a huge disappointment to the UK Gambling Commission; however, it seems to be the motivation that the government needs in order to ensure that the government passes its new laws concerning the taxation of offshore operators.

Local reports indicate that, because the UK government does not tax offshore operators, the country is missing out on over £300 million gambling tax revenue. Because a portion of these profits go to social programs, the country as a whole is losing out.

The new legislation aimed at taxing offshore operators will receive a second hearing on March 30, 2012. With the news of Gala Coral leaving the country, it is likely that the bill will receive a great deal of support.