Gibraltar Regulations Overview
Gibraltar is a world recognized offshore business center. The country is located at the most southern tip of Europe. It is acknowledged worldwide as being a well-regulated financial center; therefore it appears to be a natural choice for many online gambling business operators as a gaming jurisdiction. The Gibraltar Regulatory Authority issues licenses for all kinds of remote gambling businesses such as sportbooks, online casinos, online poker rooms, and betting exchanges. The total number of licenses issued by the Authority amounts to 21. It is important to highlight that over 10% of the countries workplace is employed in by the online gambling industry.
The responsibilities of the Authority include the following activities:
- evaluation of new licenses applications;
- investigating breach of license conditions;
- resolving disputes between online gambling business operators and online gamblers.
When applying for a license an operator should take into account two major requirements. First, every applicant has to provide proofs of high level of quality and security of the software used as a basis of their online gambling website. For this reason the software must be certified by one of the approved by the Authority agencies: TST Global, eCOGRA, iTech Labs, or Gaming Associates Pty Ltd. Second, the applicants must demonstrate their commitment responsible gambling, fair play, and underage and vulnerable players protection. It is important to have links to problem gambling help websites, take measures to prevent underage gambling, and introduce self-exclusion features to their software.
Fees and Taxes
The Gibraltar Regulatory Authority undertakes rigorous initial inspection before issuing a license. In spite of the fact, the Authority does not impose any application fee. But one of the major requirements licensees must comply with is the obligation to pay gaming tax and income tax. In order to legally minimize taxation, any online gambling operator can consult the ISOLAS Company about structuring their business.
Annual licensing fee is £2,000.
The tax rate for fixed odds and betting exchange is 1% from the turnover. The tax is capped with £425,000 per year. The gaming tax imposed on online casino businesses is 1% from the net gaming yield with the same with fixed odds betting maximum cap of £425,000 per year.
Non-Gibraltar based businesses do not fall under Gibraltar tax system and have no need to be registered for taxation purposes. It means that non-Gibraltar companies pay no capital gains tax, estate tax, gift taxes, wealth taxes or VAT. It makes non-Gibraltar companies one of the main European offshore financial centers, attractive for most kinds of offshore trading and investment.