No online casino pays tax in Ireland

There is an interesting item we have come across in the Irish casino news recently and it concerns the online casino operator Paddy Power. There have been several articles recently in the Irish casino news about possible new legislation here in Ireland which would result in more tax being paid by online casino providers such as Paddy Power. The online casino operations and other online gambling of Paddy Power is registered in the Isle of Man which means that it can avoid paying taxes in the UK for example where there is a 15% betting duty. In Ireland we are a little bit behind in that we do not even have a policy for taxing online casinos but the rumour in the Irish casino news is that there will be a 1% tax to pay sometime in the future. Paddy Power does of course pay tax in Ireland as the head office is located here and they have something approaching 3000 employees but not on the proceeds from online casinos or other online gambling. A spokesperson for the company is in the Irish casino news for saying that Paddy Power has no problem with the 1% levy as long as other online casino operators with Irish customers pays the same levy and therein lies the problem. Other online casino operators are licensed and located in an assortment of different countries but most popular are Gibraltar and Malta so even though the parent company might be registered in a different European country they are also avoiding taxation of the income on online casino operations. Although not impossible, Irish casino news thinks that it is going to be extremely difficult for the Irish government to gather taxes on income from Irish players even though they are identifiable as having a .ie address. A level playing field therefore looks unlikely.