Gambling tax verdict expected next year

A judgment on the challenge to the government's point of consumption tax regime for gambling is not expected until next year following a hearing in Europe's highest court this week.

Last year the High Court in London found in favour of the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA) that the UK tax on online gambling, which came into force in December 2014 and has been blamed for hitting online bookmakers' profitability, raised issues of European law that should be decided by the Court of Justice of the European Union.

This week the GBGA's counsel Dinah Rose QC appeared in the CJEU in Luxembourg to argue the regime was a cross-border tax unilaterally imposed on foreign operators and impeded cross-border trade, contrary to article 56 of the treaty on the Functioning of the European Union which prohibits restrictions on freedom to provide services.