Punters to escape 25% tax

The new betting legislation, which passed from the Legal Services Department and will be tabled before the Council of Ministers after which it will head before the House for a vote in October is seen stamping out illegal bets, since one of the main provisions of the bill scraps the 25% bet tax now paid to the government.

Instead, the government seeks to receive 15% of the net bet amount, being the balance between amounts received and paid to punters from the companies.

With the new legislation, there will be three main categories of bets in which limited liability companies with a minimum CYP 100.000 capital can conduct business. The Category 1 authorises companies to conduct fixed odds bets on all sports, but horse races, the Category 2 deals only with horse racing and Category 3 refers to electronic fixed odds betting. Companies need to pay a CYP 5.000 for the annual licence, CYP 9.000 for two years and CYP 14.000 for three years.

All permits will be reviewed and authorised by a newly to be created Betting Commission, which will have the responsibility for granting of licences, regulation and if required the withdrawal of licences. The five member Commission will include representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Auditor General’s office, IT and Electromechanical Departments in addition to an independent Chairman.

Based on the legislation, the Horse Racing Club will lose its monopoly to conduct local horse racing, while the law also allows punters to bet on foreign horse races.