04 Jan 12
Daily Rewind: Hansen in Macau, 2011 Traffic Increases, UK Gambling Tax News
Today on the Daily Rewind, Gus Hansen has landed in Hong Kong but will he play in Macau? Which sites grew in 2011? Plus three poker rooms make the Belgium Gaming Commission white list.
2011 online poker movers and shakers
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| PokerScout |
Apparently overall poker traffic, excluding Italy, is down 30% in the last 12 months.
The biggest gainers are the Merge Gaming Network and 888poker, the biggest losers are unsurprisingly Full Tilt Poker and the Cereus Network.
Top three:
PokerStars - 15%
iPoker Network + 9%
PartyPoker + 5%
Notable gains:
Merge Gaming Network + 90%
888poker + 86%
Bodog + 57%
Notable declines:
Full Tilt Poker - 100%
Cereus Network - 99%
Entraction Network - 51%
International Poker Network (IPN) - 42%
Belgium whitelist names approved
PokerStars, Partouche, and Poker770 are the three names to make the official Belgium Gaming Commission whitelist, according to PokerFuse.com.The commission plans to block access to any other operators this month. Players from Belgium will not be ring-fenced, meaning they will still be able to play in International player pools.
Several representatives from unlisted networks have called the laws 'unenforceable'. It remains to be seen what will happen when the whitelist is put into effect.
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| Stars, Poker770, and Partouche make the Belgium whitelist. |
UK tax plans could force players to unregulated sites
William Hill has commissioned a report which has criticised a UK government proposal for a 'point of consumption tax' on online gaming, as reported by UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph.Under the proposals, operators would also have to hold a UK Gambling Commission license to offer gambling products to UK customers.
Accounting firm Deloitte carried out the study, which has suggested that a 10% point of consumption tax would force 27% of custom to unregulated sites, and a 15% tax would see that figure rise to 40%.
The UK gambling industry is worth about £1.7 billion a year and currently players do not have to pay any tax on gambling winnings.
High Stakes Corner
The action in Macau could get even faster, with the news that Gus Hansen is heading that way. As we told you earlier this week, Mr Hansen was the biggest online cash game winner of 2011, and he has just landed in Hong Kong.He has blogged that he is worried he may not get invited to the big game, and later added:
"The more I think about it the less chance there is I will be playing in some million dollar buy-in No Limit Hold Em game in Macau – but maybe once I get there the good old bug called ‘Degenerate Gambling’ will get a hold of me and make me change my mind."
"I am also wondering whether I will be bumping into some former Full Tilt Pros? Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey and Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan to name a few that has been seen in the vicinity of Macau high stakes poker games."
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| Will Gus find a seat in Macau? |
Poker WAGS
To return to our feature on some of the hottest WAGS (Wives and Girlfriends) of the poker elite, today we feature Hana Soljan.She is already a very talented player her own right, but she qualifies for this list for being the better half of Dragan Galic.
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| Hana Soljan of Croatia |
#1
PocketAcesJohn, 04 Jan 12 18:11
I don't think i understand the UK tax thing. Why would players move to unregulated sites? From what i understand it'd be the site paying tax, not the players...#2
arba1992, 04 Jan 12 18:51
"Notable declines:Full Tilt Poker - 100%"
really?:P
#3
Boomer2k10, 04 Jan 12 21:08
#1Legislation in Process in the UK would call for all sites to carry a UK Gambling License which would be burdened with the tax.
What the article says is that if all regulated sites are charging extra to cope with the tax then players may end up seeking out unlicensed sites in order to not be subject to the Point of Sale tax.
Given the fact that taxing the customer in the UK would probably cause the party in power to lose the next election along with this danger I'm not too worried for now. Nothing is reported to happen pre end of this year anyway.