Profiting from the profiteers - How the US Government are planning to tax online gambling when it regulates

30 January 2012

Back in the summer of 2011, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act (H.R.2230), which is a federal bill, was introduced and referred to the Committee by Rep. Jim McDermott.

If it the bill gets passed (which is currently still in the early stages of the legislative process), it will not receive a warm welcome because of the steep taxation that will affect both the operator and the player. Most bills do not make it past the committee stage but if it does, it appears as though players will certainly not be able to gain from it. In fact, quite the opposite will happen.

This bill will modify the 1986 Internal Revenue Code and is solely aimed at taxing and regulating Internet Gambling.

Operators of online gambling portals will still have to apply for a separate gaming license for the particular US state that they seek to operate their business from. The legislation will mean that operators are obliged to collect tax details and data from their registered users and details of all of their cash wagers. This information that they collect will then have to be relayed to auditors.

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UIGEA, the latest update in the situation in 2011

07 May 2011

UIGEA, the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act came into effect back in 2006 to prevent financial institutions from transferring funds to online gambling operators and the initial aim was to stop financial transactions to offshore online casinos. It does not prevent the individual from placing bets on offshore online casinos just US financial institutions but it did lead to a dramatic decline in many online casinos accepting US players.

Operators like Party Gaming stopped its US operations immediately even before the legislation came into effect causing its stock price to drop by 60%. Another major player, Microgaming which powers approximately 100 online casinos also stopped business with US players causing a drastic reduction in their prices too.

In an attempt to change the dramatic effects that the UIGEA had on the online gambling industry a bill called the Barney Frank’s HR 2267 was introduced to the House Financial Services Committee but unfortunately it was not voted on in time by the House of Representatives so the initial full UIGEA came into effect on June 1st 2010. This meant that the HR 2267 bill had to be re-introduced making it a sure fact that any amendments would not take place to the legislation until a much later date.

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