Isle of Man: Nice Place For Your Online Gambling Business!
Well, as far as you can see browsing this blog there are so many places where you can establish a company for your online gambling business!
This article is written to describe Isle of Man gambling legislation. Let’s see…
The Isle of Man Government introduced legislation to regulate online gambling in 2001 and began accepting applications for licenses. There were five licenses in 2002, but by the end of 2003 all of them had left, prompting the Isle to restructure its regulations and infrastructure. Licensing is now overseen by the Department of Trade and Industry. A USD $2 million surety bond requirement has been removed. Instead, an insurance bond is now required and its price is negotiable, making licenses more available to smaller operators. In January 2005, a policy change approved by the Island’s Council of Ministers enabled operators based in the Isle of Man to accept bets from the USA and in April of 2005, the island announced a zero rate of income tax for the e-gaming sector.
Here is what e-business minister for the Isle of Man, Tim Craine, says about gambling sphere development:
So why should businesses relocate the Isle of Man?
Primarily because we are bringing in a zero rate of corporate tax from 2006. It’s also because there’s 40 per cent grant assistance available for hardware acquisition, software development, building rental, new build and the cost of relocating. That goes up to 50 per cent for training grants and it can be applied for on an annual basis. It’s not a one-off.
How has legislation helped?
We had the Online Gambling Regulation Act (2001) (check the attached file) to bring in casinos like MGM, Mirage, Rank and Littlewoods. They located to the island in anticipation of the US opening up but attitudes there hardened, so many of the online casinos closed up.
We’ve re-profiled our online offering by concentrating on sports betting. We’ve already got a well-established company on the island, Bet Internet. We are about to attract Chronicle and Paddy Power. There’s worldwide interest in the sports betting side, particularly in the Middle East.
And what other benefits are there for businesses?
We’ve got two Synchronous Digital Hierarchy self-healing fibre rings to and from the island so that if one is broken the traffic re-routes automatically. The other big advantage is power resilience.
How can you afford all these sweeteners?
Because we have VAT, unlike Jersey and Guernsey. We’ve been able to cross-subsidise VAT tax to corporate tax. By law, we’re not allowed a deficit, but we’ve just built a new £140m hospital, a new all-island incinerator, a new all-island sewage system and a new gas powered power station.
What other industries does the island attract?
Financial services makes up 46 per cent of our GDP. It’s at its peak now and has been pretty stable for a number of years.
It’s been a longstanding policy of the Isle of Man government to have a diverse economy. We make the majority of the world’s thermostatic kettle controls, every pair of M&S slippers, ejector seats for fighter aircraft and landing gear for Airbus. We’ve also got our own film industry.
Bet International needed to hire Thai speakers. It put an advert in the local paper, the Isle of Man Examiner, on the off-chance. It turned out that out of a population of 76,000 people there are 28 Thai speakers on the island.
wow…(source vnunet.com)
The licensing application fee is £1,000. The annual license fee for a betting site is £35,000. There is a 2.5% tax on net profit from bets up to £1,000,000. Net profits over that amount are taxed at a reduced rate. The corporation tax is 0%, provided the site does not accept bets from Isle of Man residents.
It tastes sweet, isnt’ it? :)
Isle of Man Gambling Business Legislation
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