Another UK Bookmaker Flees to Jersey
Tax-news.com
26 June 1999

The Surrey Group of bookmakers announced that it was going to open an office in Jersey from which it would offer on-line betting to its UK clientele, and would rely on this technique for future expansion. This is not the first UK bookmaker to move to Jersey, Ireland, the Isle of Man or Gibraltar to escape the high UK betting duty. The exodus results partly from the spread of the Internet and partly from the Irish Government's sharp reduction of its own betting duty which has allowed Irish bookmakers to offer much better value to English punters. The trend can only continue; if the UK Government is forced to abandon its betting duty, it will be first blood to the Internet. But it may turn out to be a Phyrric victory if the Government is forced into savage measures to preserve its tax base.

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