Due to complaints from land based gambling companies, the new Danish gambling law is headed back to the European Commission for further review.
The complaint from the land based gambling companies is that the tax provisions of the new law are unfair.
This comes following reports that Danske Spil, the former state online gambling monopoly, would have to abandon it’s online poker b2b deal with the world’s leading listed online gaming company, Party gaming. This follows a complaint from Playtech plc regarding tender procedures. Playtech has stated that they would retender on the deal.
A Danish spokesman for the Danish Tax authorities stated: “The land-based operators say this could be a state aid problem….We don’t agree but to be sure we will notify the European Commission.”
The new Danish law requires that slot machines and casino revenues be taxed at rates between 45 and 75 percent. However, the rates for online gambling would be 20 percent. The operators of the land based casinos say this gives the online operators an unfair advantage.
Denmark has six land based privately owned casinos, and legal slot machines in bars, restaurants and amusement arcades.
One land based casino supporter said: “These online operators have acted illegally in Denmark for many years and now they are getting a big reward for that by paying one-third of the tax that the land-based companies are paying”.