In a bill addressing amendments to betting regulations, Ireland has decided to keep its tax on land-based betting shops at 1 percent of turnover instead of raising it to 2 percent.
However, the bill also would extend the 1 percent tax to online gambling operators and bets taken over the telephone.
Betting exchanges have been assigned a gross profits tax—a tax on GGR—of 15 percent.
The government hopes to get an additional €10 million in taxes from online gambling for its budget in 2012.
A final draft of the bill is expected to be published early this year. The bill would then go to the European Commission for comment, at least three months before coming into effect.
More extreme plans that seem to have been rejected for the time being included doubling the turnover tax to 2 percent and imposing a tax on players’ winnings.
The Irish government is currently in the process of a comprehensive overhaul of all gaming legislation, which could result in further changes to tax rates in the future.
