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£30 Million Price Tag For Gibraltar Betting Licence

Panorama

17 January 2001

This story is reproduced by kind permission of Panorama at http://www.panorama.gi


A Gibraltar bookmakers licence is up for grabs - by anyone willing to pay up to £30 million. Simon Bold (Gibraltar) Ltd, which operates from the Europort area, is seeking a buyer or strategic partner.
The Telegraph says observers believe the business could be sold for up to £30million.

The paper says it is understood that the firm advising and organising the sale has told bidders that the company could consider an outright offer. “I would like to have an involvement in any new structure and continue to run the business for the long term,” he said.

In the last nine months, says the report, the internet and telephone bookmaker turned over £6 million, although it is believed to have made a trading loss. It is however the Gibraltar licence that makes the business so valuable.
Gibraltar government policy has been to restrict the number of betting licences it issues. There are seven in operation. The chief minister Peter Caruana is on record as saying that the government’s policy is one of ‘pick and choose’ to try and attract only the better bookmakers.

The restrictive policy however increases the price prospective buyers would be expected to pay, in what can become a speculative environment. If there are no controls on bookmakers being able to sell, the government policy ends up having a loophole and literally anyone can get in by buying a licence.

There is increasing speculation that Britain will abolish betting duty in its March budget. “It would offer the Chancellor a way to prevent the loss of millions of pounds in betting revenue as punters switch to internet accounts and bookies in Ireland and elsewhere who offer much lower tax rates,” said a report in the Daily Mail. As Panorama reported last week, British bookmakers who fled oversas are to hold a meeting with the UK’s tax people about the conditions that would make them return to Britain and scrap their overseas operations.

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