Until now there has been no regulation about online betting and online gambling in one of largest European markets - Czech Republic. Just a few years ago, this country has been a home for hundreds of regular casinos. However, due to the regulation, the largest majority of such casinos had to close down. This has led most of the players to move online, yet this space was not regulated at all. Hence, it has been costing a lot, both players and the government.
As reported by the website Play-casino-online.co.uk, since January 1st, 2017 Czech government plans to regulate online gambling and betting industries as well as online poker. Until now it is now clear whether Czech regulator is looking to apply the same or similar set of principles to bitcoin gambling casinos. This is an important step to make the industry safer for the players. On top of that, the government will be taxing these industries heavily and it also plans to fight the gambling addictions with the raised by taxes.
How will the taxes look like?
Until now an operator of an online casino had to settle its taxes in the country of its registration. Most often, this has resulted in nearly zero taxes paid. From the next year, a gambling company will have to get a registration and a regulation in Czech Republic and would be a subject to 35% tax on the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR). On top of that, a company would have to pay a corporate tax rate of 19%. Hence, gambling regulation in Czech Republic comes with quite some sliced profits.
As for the sports betting and lotteries, it will be taxed at a lower rate - 23% of Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR). However, the same corporate tax of 19% is applicable.
Besides that, online poker has been quite limited too. A maximum bet in online poker is capped at 1,000 CZK (which is around 37 EUR) and a maximum winning per game or per tournament are capped at 50,000 CZK (around 1850 EUR). These are some terrible news for the professional online poker players as, sometimes, their bet will not exceed the limit, yet their earnings will.
Good or bad?
While establishing some regulation in the online gaming sector is definitely a good piece of news, such a high tax rate may result in many operators moving into a gray area and offering bitcoin gambling or betting services without any regulation. Apart from that, many professional poker players are expected to move away from the country.
Source: http://play-casino-online.co.uk/casino-news/czech-republic-announces-regulation-taxation-of-online-gambling/
