Gaming Industry News all over the World 16. Feb 2010

16.02.2010, Gibraltar Uneffected by Tax Amnesty / Singapore bets on casinos to boost tourism / Spanish Gambling Laws Unfair Contends E.C.J. / Youth Dominating Online Poker Wins

Gibraltar Uneffected by Tax Amnesty
The movement of money in the world can seriously affect a nations financial status from time to time. A recent report by the Wealth Bulletin said tax amnesties, hostile governments and tougher economic conditions are encouraging Europe’s wealthy to play it safe. An estimated 25% of offshore funds, or $520bn (€383bn), has left offshore centres in Europe since the beginning of 2008 according to the Wealth Bulletin's research department.

“Offshore centres have to wake up to a new reality where more and more of the wealthy decide to bank onshore.” said Graham Harvey of the London-based consultancy Scorpio Partnership. The movement of funds back to the country of origin is made in some cases to meet capital needs for cash-strapped companies. The Channel Islands and The Isle of Man which are both centers for the online gambling industry and U.K. crown dependencies have lost around 16% of their offshore assets since 2008 says the Wealth Bulletin research. They suffered from the fallout of the collapse of the Icelandic bank in late 2008 which had account holders in Guernsey and the Isle of Man. The episode raised questions over whether the crown dependencies would be covered by deposit guarantee schemes. The crown dependencies have gone on the offensive and looked at new ways of attracting money. Jersey has been at the forefront of this with its foundations law a new initiative in structuring trusts. It has also signed 15 tax information exchange agreements, with others on the schedule. The U.K.'s overseas dependency Gibraltar, which has developed a reputation as a centre for offshore online gambling operations, has barely been affected by the crackdown on offshore banking centres. Perhaps disclosure agreements within the European Union nations will force the wealthy to move their money to places like Singapore or Panama. Online gambling is always looking for places where the tax laws are most favourable in order to remain competitive in this demanding industry.

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Singapore bets on casinos to boost tourism
Singapore opened the first of two casinos on Sunday as part of a campaign to attract millions of new tourists, but the rich city-state is not touting itself as a rival to glitzy Macau or Las Vegas.

Resorts World Sentosa, owned by Malaysian gaming giant Genting, will also feature Southeast Asia's first Universal Studios movie theme park. The second casino complex, Marina Bay Sands, is currently being completed by US-based Las Vegas Sands and is expected to open in April.

Officials hope the casinos will help Singapore achieve its target of 17 million visitors a year generating over us$ 21 billion by 2015, boosting the services sector and reducing the role of manufacturing in the economy.

Visitor arrivals fell to 9.7 million visitors in 2009, down 4.3 percent from 2008, but a surge in the final quarter of last year boosted the tourism industry's hopes that 2010 numbers will be better. The arrival numbers include tourists using the island city-state as a jumpoff point to other Asian destinations.

Singapore hopes tourists will stay a little longer - and spend a lot more - as a result of the casino resorts.

Resorts World Sentosa is aimed at families, while Marina Bay Sands, located next to the banking district, is designed to cater to the corporate and convention crowd.

"Singapore's new casinos open up Southeast Asia as an entirely new market for multiple- billion dollar integrated entertainment," Jonathan Galaviz, an independent gaming industry analyst based in Las Vegas, told AFP.

A marine life park, a maritime museum, a spa and two more hotels will be launched at Resorts World Sentosa after 2010. Singapore gave the green light for casino gambling in 2005, setting off a flurry of construction that went ahead despite the city-state slipping into recession in 2008 due to the impact of the global crisis. The two "integrated resorts" will cost a total of over us$ 10 billion to build.

Unlike larger neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia, highly urbanised Singapore has no major natural destinations to offer and relies on man-made attractions such as shopping malls and wildlife parks to pull in tourists.

Galaviz said the Singapore casino resorts are not expected to compete "substantially" with gambling-driven Macau because the resorts are pitched at visitors who prioritise entertainment over gambling.

The success of Singapore's casino resorts will be measured by how the attractions outside of the gaming rooms perform, he added. "It's important for everybody to remember that more than 90 % of (Singapore resorts' facilities) have nothing to do with casino gaming," he said. "The more important metric to gauge the ultimate success of the (resorts) will be the non-casino revenue such as hotel rooms, retail, and restaurants."

Galaviz says Singapore's gaming market is expected to generate revenues of two billion dollars annually, which will be significantly lower than what Singapore residents already spend annually in legal gaming.

Figures from Singapore Totalisator Board, the city-state's sole legal betting operator, showed us$ 5.77 billion were wagered on horse racing, football matches, among others, in the year to March 2009.

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Spanish Gambling Laws Unfair Contends E.C.J.
The European Union is at best struggling with years of traditions and differences in cultural morals and ethics within it's vastly diverse member nations. Online gambling seems to be a bone of contention in just a few of the members legislative agendas. Recently there have been numerous legal actions set in motion in the countries of Germany and Portugal and now there is trouble with the law regarding e commerce in Spain. The European Commission has an issue with Spain when it comes to the gambling laws in that country.

Players who win money through lotteries and games of chance that are offered by certain domestic operators do not have to pay any tax on their winnings. Where as players who win through offshore or foreign lotteries and games of chance must pay taxes on their winnings. Spain decided recently that it would change it's requirements for gambling operators in the country. It has moved to the privatization of the industry. New gambling legislation was introduced in an attempt to reduce the corruption in the government among officials that deal with the gambling finances. Under the new laws more than 4,000 lottery administrations and other similar businesses will be required to change their legal status. The state will cease to control 2% of the well over €30 billion market that would usually go to the Treasury. In a land where it citizens spend twice as much on gambling as is spent in the UK the government insists that the tax breaks come down to a matter of social policy, since the exempt games are all offered by charitable organizations. The European Court of Justice has noted that if this were the case, the tax exemption should equally apply to games offered by similar entities in other E.U. countries. The ECJ notes that this practice unjustly discriminates against foreign operators, and disregards the E.U. mandated free trade policy across national borders.

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Youth Dominating Online Poker Wins
Youth in the world of online poker is becoming more prevalent than ever these days. Online poker sites are blossoming with younger and more interesting poker professionals all the time with many young players taking the top honours and making the most money. A good example of this trend is

Cole South who currently, is online poker's biggest winner of the year as he has profited over $2.7 million since the beginning of January 2K10. South is a strong player that just added $558,000 to his bankroll. Then there is the recent Borgata Winter Poker Open winner cool customer Jeff Madsen who finished in first place out of 766 players in the $3,500 No Limit Hold' em tournament, pocketing the winner's prize of $625,006 to push his career earnings to over the $3 million mark. Jeff Madsen is only twenty four years old now and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA where cards are king. Vegas is close to Los Angeles, where he will be playing in the next few weeks in the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino in the City of Commerce. Madsen has enjoyed remarkable success so far, but he knows he must keep practicing so he stays mentally sharp. He began honing his skills during his freshman year at UC Santa Barbara, playing primarily at the Chumash Indian Casino in Santa Ynez where the legal gambling age is only 18. "I'll probably play 80 to 120 tournaments in a year, depending on how much I win," Madsen said. "I've played all of the best players by now and I hold my own. They're my buddies. Sure, the more I play them the more they know me but I know them better too so it works both ways." "It's just like any other sport in that you have to keep improving and working on your game," he said. "Especially now with the internet there's forums, chat rooms and online poker so you're always trying to stay one step ahead."

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