Tote's online casino finds tax haven

ALDERNEY -- As reported by The Guardian: "Totesport Casino, an internet arm of government-owned bookmaker the Tote, is switching its operations to the offshore tax haven of Alderney in a controversial move that will allow it to advertise freely in the UK while avoiding UK tax and regulation.

"The move will come as an embarrassment for ministers who have sought to present the UK's approach to online gaming regulation, set out in the Gambling Act 2005, as world-leading. In practice, the industry has boycotted the UK regime.

"At a conference of international regulators held at Ascot last year, Peter Dean, chairman of the government's new Gambling Commission, said: "Everybody who offers gambling in Britain will be required to be licensed by us [from September 2007]."

"But when the September deadline came, none of the leading poker and casino operators took up a UK licence. They said they had been forced to boycott the UK because Gordon Brown, in one of his final moves as chancellor, had set a prohibitively high 15% "remote gaming duty," the tax on online poker and casinos..."