Italy applies a 2–5% tax on GBD (Ficom Leisure 2011) for general sport betting and a 20% tax on GPT for spread bets (PwC 2011). Some examples: the United Kingdom applied a 6.75% tax on GBD until October 2001, when it was replaced by a 15% tax in GPT (National Audit Office 2005). In general, the basic taxation scheme is based on two types of taxes: the General Betting Duty (GBD) is levied as a proportion of betting stakes whereas the Gross Profits Tax (GPT) is levied as a proportion of the net revenue of the operators. However, this regulation has not been done in a uniform way throughout the different countries. Over the last years, many European countries have been regulating their online betting and gaming sector. Things may be different in a regulated market. As opposed, offline betting users need to be physically at a selling point. This is because online betting users can bet from any internet terminal, even at home.

Under an unregulated market, the cost of offering a bet is inelastic with respect to the bet volume, i.e. As opposed to offline operators, they do not need to open physical selling points. A remarkable feature of online betting (which includes sports, casino and card games such as poker) is that their operators require little more than an internet web page to enter a new market.

Sports betting industry uk