Irish Finance Minister Ditches Proposed Gambling Tax Increase

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Dec 29, 2017

But the concept could be re-visited in the future

Paschal Donohoe, the Irish Minister of Finance, has announced that the government will not impose a doubling of the tax rate on gambling operators…at least not in the 2018 budget, although the possibility may be revisited at some future point.

Donohoe’s finance department had presented three options that could have raised up to Euro 50 million extra from bookies or punters as part of a review of betting tax, but the minister decided to leave the current 1 percent rate in place, at least for the immediate future, following a number of submissions from a betting industry concerned that an increase could result in closures and job losses.

A statement from the department said: “The minister received a number of submissions for possible inclusion in Budget 2018. He took the decision that any potential actions on foot of the Betting Tax Review should be considered as part of Budget 2019.”

Brian Cullingworth

Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.

We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.

His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.


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