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Coral to pay taxes for online gamblers
By Simon Goodley
CORAL GROUP, the British bookmaker, will pay betting taxes for its customers if they place their bets using new internet terminals, rather than over the counter.
Duty free: Coral will install computers in betting shops
The trial, which the company plans to extend to its 860 shops, is the latest in a string of moves by bookmakers desperate to grab a slice of the booming online betting market.
Coral, which was acquired in 1998 by the Deutsche Bank subsidiary Morgan Grenfell Private Equity, will provide terminals in the shops that will allow customers to visit 40 selected sporting information websites and eurobet.co.uk, the online betting business acquired by Coral last year.
Bookmakers, including Coral's rivals Ladbrokes and William Hill, have begun paying internet betting duties of 6.75pc to fight off the competiton from their tax-free offshore rivals.
Analysts predict that the internet and interactive TV will revolutionise the gaming industry, swelling the western European online betting market from £55m (£37m) last year, to $5.5 billion by 2004.
Bookmakers claim that subsidising betting duty is a short-term solution and are lobbying government to lower the duty rate. The consultation phase of the Customs and Excise's betting review should be completed by the end of this month.
Greg Johnson, a leisure analyst with stockbroker CCF Charterhouse, said: "Eventually betting duty will cripple the industry in terms of jobs and revenue. The government will have to change the levy."
A spokesman for the Treasury said: "People should know that the Government won't accept a reduction in the betting revenue."
By Simon Goodley
CORAL GROUP, the British bookmaker, will pay betting taxes for its customers if they place their bets using new internet terminals, rather than over the counter.
Duty free: Coral will install computers in betting shops
The trial, which the company plans to extend to its 860 shops, is the latest in a string of moves by bookmakers desperate to grab a slice of the booming online betting market.
Coral, which was acquired in 1998 by the Deutsche Bank subsidiary Morgan Grenfell Private Equity, will provide terminals in the shops that will allow customers to visit 40 selected sporting information websites and eurobet.co.uk, the online betting business acquired by Coral last year.
Bookmakers, including Coral's rivals Ladbrokes and William Hill, have begun paying internet betting duties of 6.75pc to fight off the competiton from their tax-free offshore rivals.
Analysts predict that the internet and interactive TV will revolutionise the gaming industry, swelling the western European online betting market from £55m (£37m) last year, to $5.5 billion by 2004.
Bookmakers claim that subsidising betting duty is a short-term solution and are lobbying government to lower the duty rate. The consultation phase of the Customs and Excise's betting review should be completed by the end of this month.
Greg Johnson, a leisure analyst with stockbroker CCF Charterhouse, said: "Eventually betting duty will cripple the industry in terms of jobs and revenue. The government will have to change the levy."
A spokesman for the Treasury said: "People should know that the Government won't accept a reduction in the betting revenue."