Statutory Levy Details Revealed By UKGC
The UK’s Gambling Commission (UKGC) has confirmed more details about the statutory levy operators will soon have to pay.
Invoices will soon be on the way for gambling operators in the UK. © Mohamed_hassan, Pixabay
Key Facts:
- Levy will have to be paid by all UK gambling operators
- Online firms will be paying more than land-based companies
- Amounts to be paid will be determined using data that is submitted through Regulatory Returns
- The first invoices for the levy are scheduled to be issued on September 1, with operators given a month to pay
Information about the different licence categories and what rates will be charged has now been confirmed by UKGC.
Operators will be charged using data submitted through Regulatory Returns, with the first invoices set to be dated September 1.
Companies in the gambling industry will then be given a month to settle their first levy payment.
Most remote licences – which includes the likes of remote casino, bingo, and sports betting – are going to be subject to a 1.1% levy on gross gambling yield (GGY).
Land-based operations will pay lower rates, with the levy set at 0.5% for traditional betting and casino operators and only 0.1% for family entertainment centres and gaming machine suppliers.
How Rates Are Calculated
UKGC said various factors have been used to calculate the rate for the new statutory levy.
A mix of GGY, as well as the retained proceeds after prizes and good causes will be taken into account, with gross sales value also factored in.
Lottery operators and external lottery managers – both remote and land-based – have been told that they will have to pay a flat rate of 0.1%.
The government previously said it expects to raise as much as £100 million through the introduction of the new statutory levy.
It has since been confirmed that the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities has been appointed to the role of RET Levy Prevention Commissioner
Labour pledged to reform the gambling sector in the UK and has also brought in slot stake limits for online casinos as well as the new levy for operators in the sector.
Dearth Of Good Quality Research
UKGC’s new statutory levy for the gambling industry has been controversial, with not everyone agreeing that it is the right move.
The levy will help to fund research about gambling-related harms, but Sam Chamberlain, who is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Southampton, is among those to air concerns.
Speaking at a recent committee meeting in parliament, he pointed out that studies funded by gambling companies themselves could have moral concerns.
Chamberlain said: “What you have is a dearth of good quality research, in my opinion, over the last decades, is many of the good researchers in the field of gambling would not have been prepared to take that money because of ethical and other concerns.
“In pragmatic terms, the industry has been giving cash to one massive charity that then has been handing out that money to various organisations. [But] I’m not saying that all of that work is invalid.”
Several years ago, an all-party parliamentary group of MPs proposed a new levy for the industry.
