Tag Archives: uk
Offshore Online Casinos In Great Britain To Be Licensed Again
It’s been all quite in the UK gambling industry until the FullTilt bombshell exploded. Remember the scandal with the British players being unable to get their money from this poker website? Well, the Department of Culture, Media and Sports is now determined to protect all UK players against the evils of offshore online casinos.
It is really nice that the British government is so much concerned about the safety of its citizens’ hard earned money, but the question is: will British gamblers really benefit from a crackdown on non-UK based online casinos?
Supposedly, according to the new rules, all casino operators hoping to run a gambling business in the UK will have to submit applications to the Gambling Commission and obtain another licence. Although the Treasury is avoiding straightforward announcements, you will hardly find anyone who doesn’t understand the real reasons for this interference. It’s just the first step towards reclaiming taxes that had been lost when many of the UK online casinos went offshore.
Even some industry giants have moved to smaller jurisdictions in order to avoid really high UK taxation. They wanted to be able to effectively compete with offshore online casinos and now it looks like they will have to consider moving back.
In addition, the new licensing scheme may lead to the annulment of the so-called “white list”, which used to put online casino operators licensed in one of the named jurisdictions in a favourable position. With the introduction of the new law they will not be able to operate and/or advertise in the UK, unless they get a licence from the British Gambling Commission. For UK gamblers this may mean that the number of available online casinos will be significantly reduced.
Michael Caselli, one of the worlds leading experts on online gaming and an editor of iGaming Business magazine, said: “The tax rate pretty much relates to how much less value the punter gets. A 10% tax rate is 10% less value for punters.” Indeed, British players will only lose if online casinos will want to compensate for their extra spending on taxes.
At the same time offshore gaming jurisdictions, such as Isle of Man seem to be unworried about the possible licensing changes. They believe they already adhere to high regulatory standards which are comparable to those in Britain and, as Allan Bell MHK, Isle of Man Economic Development Minister, noticed, “the UK Gambling Commission has no wish to duplicate the work that our Gambling Commission does in regulating our operators”.
UK National Lottery Funding Film Production
UK National Lottery Funding Film Production
Lottery revenues fund a wide variety of government services. In the US most states with lotteries use the money generated by lottery revenue for education and some states use lottery money for a wide variety of social services. The amount of money lotteries would make available to education was used as a selling point to gain voter and legislative approval for the implementation of state lotteries. On the other side of the Atlantic the UK National lottery funds a wide variety of government services. The ‘Big Lottery Fund’ has been used for a wide variety of interesting and unusual purposes. The ‘Heroes Return’ program funded by the Big Lottery Fund finances visits by World War Two veterans to former battlefields. Veterans can apply for grants ranging from £150 ($233 USD) to £5,500 ($8,570 USD) to visit the places where they fought so bravely so long ago. Veterans can be accompanied by a spouse or care giver.
In addition to this great program the UK National Lottery also funds the UK Film Council and provides £17 million pounds ($24,493,851 USD) for the production of new films. The Development Fund receives £12 million pounds from the UK National Lottery to be used over a period of three years. The fund aids filmmakers of all experience levels to develop their ideas into viable films. There are two fund programs; one for novice filmmakers and one for experienced established filmmakers.
The ‘New Cinema Fund’ is provided with £15 million pounds ($23,375,029 USD) of lottery money to be invested over a period of three years and helps both novice and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream. The fund is committed to funding the work of minority filmmakers and supports the production of eight to ten feature films a year and over 100 short films every year. The fund has supported the production of award winning films such as ‘Man on Wire’ which won an Academy Award and several films that have won awards at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals.
The ‘Premiere Fund’ invests £8 million pounds ($12,467,816 USD) a year for the production of mainstream commercially viable films for global audiences. The UK National Lottery is probable the only lottery finding the production of films. The funds give budding filmmakers the funding to bring their ideas to the big screen and have launched several careers. Every time someone purchases a ticket for the UK National Lottery they could be helping to fund this year’s blockbuster film!