Finance Minister Says New Irish Gambling Laws Will Tax Online Bets

Michael Noonan, the Finance Minister of Ireland, has been feverishly writing the portion of the new Irish gambling laws that deal with the taxation issues for the past few weeks with what is being described as great progress.

Unlike the paste Finance Ministers, who chose to write legislation on the future of Irish gambling laws at O’Dolleys Pub, which usually resulted in laws written in an incomprehensible Gaelic dialect, Mr. Noonan is all business.

At present, Ireland has no means to collect taxes from online bets placed from within Ireland at foreign based online casino in Ireland as well as bingo, poker and sports betting.

Since the popularity of online gambling, sports betting and online bingo games in Ireland, the revenues earmarked for Irish sports have fallen from €54 million in 2007 to €30 million today.

FM Noonan is drafting the proposed legislation which will go hand in hand with the liberalization of the Irish online gambling market, which will license and permit foreign based online gambling businesses to legally accept Irish online gamblers.

The financial portion of the online gambling laws would place a ‘betting duty’ on all online bets placed within Ireland whether online, mobile or via phone at foreign jurisdictions at 1%. The need for legislation to oversee online bets placed from within Ireland at foreign based online casinos came after Labour Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, brought up the question of the 50% drop in sports funding.

The €30 million in current gambling taxes has been used to prop up the dying horse and greyhound racing industries while the 25 sports bodies throughout the country have been surviving on the remaining few quid.