Ladbrokes to Offer Internet Gaming from Gibraltar

Tax-news.com

22 November 1999

UK bookmakers Ladbrokes, which recently set-up a telephone betting service based in Gibraltar, has announced that it will soon also offer lottery-style Internet games. The move is seen as a direct attack on the UK national lottery, Camelot, which has eroded betting industry revenue since its establishment and is now looking to establish an online presence.

Ladbrokes plans to launch a gaming website early next year that will include games such as blackjack, roulette, and Keno. It is also considering making some games free as an initial promotion and offering one-off online lotteries with huge cash prizes. Once established, Ladbrokes also plans to offer the new service via mobile phones and digital TV.

Ladbrokes has denied its new offshore services are an attempt to pressure the UK Government into cutting betting tax and lifting advertising restrictions, but avoiding these were clearly incentives for locating the new services offshore. The managing director of Ladbrokes International (a subsidiary of Ladbrokes in the UK) John O'Reilly said "We're doing this because we have to compete against rivals who offer these sort of services".

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