Labour's Tom Watson Speaks Out Against in-game Gambling

[WYP]

The UK's Gambling Laws are 'analogue legislation not fit for the digital age'.



Read more about Tom Watson's thoughts on the UK's Gambling Legislation.

 

[Greenback]

In layman's language we could put more taxes on this

 

[Warchild]

In layman's language we could put more taxes on this

I welcome the tax. Would you rather they target this growing gaming community, or continue to cut funding in your schools and communities.

Its an untapped market which can be exploited to actually get funds for areas that need it. Providing they have this kind of mentality.

 

[grec]

UK gambling tax isn't on the consumer anyway, it's on the gambling organisation, which in the case of loot boxes would be the game publishers(All gambling winnings are tax free), so yeah not sure why that would be opposed in any measure given only massive gaming companies really have reason do this big loot box economy stuff (But that's not really what this seems to be in any sense given taxation is only a small tool of regulation like this which is primarily intended to protect children & vulnerable people).

 

[demonking]

UK gambling tax isn't on the consumer anyway, it's on the gambling organisation, which in the case of loot boxes would be the game publishers.

Current gambling law has too much distinction on the "place" where the licenced activity is taking place. so for instance a bookies, or a specific website and companies have to dictate how they will uphold the law in each "place" the activity is taking place. So William hill can gamble on anything they want (within legal confines) in there shops or website. If we take a game for example, im going to reference CSGO here as its the only one I am familiar with for this specific reference. assuming we now class opening loot crates as gambling, you crates and keys on the steam market (or win the crate in a game) but you open this crate in the game. This contradicts U.K gambling law as you cannot sell the gambling service in a different "place" to the act of gambling (Fixed odd betting, chance gaming like lotteries). Even if this was legal somehow, Valve would have to licence both the market place and the game and in order to get these they would need to prove how they would uphold the objectives of the licence. Simply stamping a game with an 18 label is not enough, they would need to prove how they are enforcing this. So for example a night club could say they are preventing children from harm but not allowing them access, or verifying, in person, the age of those attempting to purchase licensable products something valve cannot do. They allow anyone over the age of 13 (according to their own policy though we all know how many kids younger than this have steam accounts, YouTube anyone?) which means they would not be allowed to gamble on the market. Then there is an in game transaction, valve would have to actively police and report on all circumstances where a minor may have come into contact with the licensable activity or risked being able to purchase said items, on a free to play game where if they did ban a kid from the inventory transactions they would have a new account within minutes. U.K gambling law in its current state would not be fit for purpose for in game gambling.
Plus there is no loophole for tax on gambling for businesses so there is that. You can't tax a company without a loophole, golden rule of democracy. Avoid your tax as an individual, go to prison, do it as a business you'll get a wagged finger from someone somewhere. Look at Amazon, 11bn in profit and they got a tax rebate and didn't pay a penny in tax. If you or I did that well we'd be sitting in a prison cell for a lot longer than people who commit serious and vile crimes. what a joke.