The Isle of Man's Treasury proposes to update and simplify gambling duty laws on the island.
The basic principle behind the proposed legislation is that "the complicated and dated mix of legislation dealing with the excise duty aspects of gambling law would be usefully simplified and codified."
The legislation would also enable government bodies to exchange information with one another and with off-island agencies more efficiently in order to better combat possible criminality.
The proposed changes are contained in a consultation document available on the government's website.
What's new in the proposed bill?
a. having a single Act to deal with both online gambling and on- and off-course
betting and pool betting;
b. providing that the Act may be amended by order to keep pace with changing
technological and market developments (n.b. the Pool Betting and Betting
Acts currently permit amendment by order to match corresponding UK
legislation);
c. requiring all operators to provide notice in advance to Treasury’s Customs
and Excise Division of their intention to commence dutiable operations (n.b.
this requirement already exists in the Pool Betting and Betting Acts);
d. providing for the use of Treasury Warrants to enforce duty debts. Treasury
Warrants are currently used by Customs and Excise to enforce VAT debts,
and by Income Tax to enforce tax debts, have the force of a High Court
judgment and are signed by the Collector of Customs and Excise3;
e. to fully align the procedure for review of, and appeals against, decisions
relating to duty with those for other forms of excise duty administered by the
Customs and Excise Division;
f. ensuring that officers’ powers of access to premises and documents extends
to all relevant premises associated with gambling activities – and hence to
such as call centres, back-office accounting or support centres and so on;
g. creating an offence of “holding out” that a person is licensed in the Island.
This would enable the Island to request Internet service providers to block
offending websites4;
h. explicitly providing that an officer may use their powers in relation to checks
of an operator’s compliance with anti-money laundering legislation and
guidance;
i. providing the Treasury the discretion to disclose information to bodies
responsible for the regulation of sports, financial transactions etc where this
is necessary to detect or prevent corruption.