Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

The proposed Betting (Amendment) Bill, which is being drafted at present, will amend the Betting Act 1931 to, inter alia, establish the regulatory framework for the licensing of remote bookmakers and betting exchanges, including measures to enforce the regulatory framework. The drafting of the Bill, which is fairly complex, is well advanced.

The Finance Act 2011 contained measures to allow for the extension of the 1% betting duty to remote bookmakers and for a 15% gross profit tax to betting exchanges. The taxation provisions are subject to a ministerial commencement order which can only be commenced when the Betting (Amendment) Bill is enacted.

As the Deputy may be aware, it is currently the bookmaker who is liable to pay the betting duty. When the betting duty is extended to the remote betting sector, liability will remain with the bookmaker. To do otherwise would provide an incentive for the punter to seek out ways to avoid paying the tax. From an enforcement point of view it is a far easier task to police a relatively small number of firms compared with hundreds of thousands of consumers. It is not possible to cost the levy as proposed by the Deputy, as neither my Department nor the Revenue Commissioners has access to the relevant data, that is, the level and breakdown of winning bets.

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