Brexit is now official and it is expected that this will affect the majority of the industries and businesses in the UK and Europe. Part of this is the gambling industry, both online and land-based sectors. The UK is known to be one of the countries that gamble the most, but other EU countries are also big fans of gambling.
Many casino operators are based the UK, particularly in Gibraltar. Around 25 percent of Gibraltar’s economy is from the revenue made by the online gambling industry. The online and mobile casino UK businesses chose to be based here because of the low taxes, which would help them operate and offer services to Europe at a cheaper cost.
This helps allow these casinos offer great bonuses and promos to their players. You may check Efirbet’s review about 1xBit bonus details to give you an idea as to what these bonuses are all about.
However, since Brexit is now official, this may have an affect on how the casino operators in Gibraltar will be operating. It’s still unclear whether they’d still be offering services to EU countries. Negotiations will still have to take place.
What’s known, however, is that the businesses in the UK will fall under the regulation of the World Trade Organization or WTO. This could be a problem for gambling operators. Philippe Vlaemminck, a gambling and trade lawyer, gambling is excluded from any market-access commitments for services by the EU.
Any British company in the gambling or iGaming industry can basically be excluded from being part of any bidding processes inside the European Union. This will surely impact the online casino operators, but this is already prepared for by some companies.
Bet365, for example, is based in the UK since 2000. However, they still have a head office in one of the remaining countries in the EU. This means that they still subject to EU gambling and gaming regulations. They will still have privileges that the EU gives to its local operators.
However, for businesses that are only based in the UK, they may be pushed to move their operations elsewhere. This is to make sure that they can still offer their full services to the 27 countries that are still part of the EU.
Definitely, this could affect Gibraltar negatively and Malta positively. There is still a transition period that is 11 months. Since the UK left the European Union on January 31, the transition period will last until December 31, 2020.
This will give the businesses 11 months to continue their operations without any changes. The UK will still continue to contribute to the EU’s budget until then. However, since the talk of Brexit has risen a few years back, many businesses already pulled their operations out in the UK.
Some businesses and casino operators stated their reasons as a strategical move for business improvement, but some are just direct about the possible impact of Brexit. Over the last few months, thee UK has been experiencing a decrease in revenue from gambling activities.
Companies leaving the UK is one of the reasons for this, but it’s also because the UK is implementing more rules to take care of the country’s gambling addiction. This is why it’s really likely that many casino operators in the UK will eventually move their operations. They’d rather be based in places where they would be freer to operate.
Now, aside from Brexit possibly affecting the businesses in the gambling industry sector, how will this affect the players? This will really depend on where casino operators will choose to be based. Since Gibraltar has lower tax rates, the move of operators could mean that they will have to go elsewhere in the EU with higher tax rates. This could also mean that more countries in the EU would push for local regulations.
This could affect the overall gaming experience of the players as operators will have to spend more on operations. This means that they will have to offer lower payouts or odds. Even if online casino games are not rigged, this could still affect the amount of money that players could win.
Overall, the impact of the Brexit on the gambling industry won’t be felt just yet. The effects may only manifest by next year and until then, the operators and players don’t know just yet whether the EU officials will be regulating gambling the same way the UK is already doing.
February 1st is just really the start of the negotiations that will take place between the government officials from the UK and the EU. All these will happen during the transition period and until this period ends, businesses, including the gambling industry, will have to wait and see how they’ll move on.
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