Ladbrokes, William Hill and other British online casinos will be moving their services out of the UK and relocating to offshore locations.  Both Ladbrokes and William Hill are citing new tax codes as their impetus for moving companies.  The UK is quickly gaining a reputation as a having one of the highest tax rates, 15%, for its gambling companies.   The two online casinos are set to relocate to Gibraltar, where tax rates are at 1.5%.  The only glitch for operating under the notably lower tax rate of Gibraltar is that the companies have to officially relocate to its borders. 

Many online companies currently operating in the UK are set to make the same move. They are realizing that the high tax rate is “unsustainable” to their businesses.  With the possibility for a money-saving location, most UK online casinos are looking to make similar moves.  The question still remains whether or not the UK will have regulatory rights to these online casinos, however.

In the global recession, many governments are looking to capitalize on online gambling taxes as a way to bring in much-needed revenue.  The global debate raging now is the legalization of online casinos.  Many countries are seeing the benefit of online gambling and trying to find ways of bringing in income by creating tax laws that benefit their fiscal agendas.  For example, many cities in the US are looking to rewrite tax codes for gambling so that they can cover the expenses of public works programs, road developments and education.   The first step is formal legalization of online gambling and this seems to be the hottest topic for many municipalities worldwide.  Though there are critics who believe that legalizing online gambling would be detrimental to the people and society as a whole, the ones with the most clout, governments themselves, are hard-pressed to turn away possible millions of dollars in taxes.

Ladbrokes, William Hill and other British online casinos are moving to spare themselves the high taxation of the UK.  Is this a sign that other online casinos will do the same? If the world continues to look to online gambling as a way of finding extra funding, online casinos are sure to have to find ways of watching out for themselves.