Ladbrokes Confirms Move Away from UK to Gibraltar

Over the last few weeks, there has been much speculation about whether the UK's largest gambling firms would actually leave Britain to escape hefty gambling taxes levied by the government, but now Ladbrokes has definitely confirmed it will join rival William Hill in leaving the UK for greener pastures.

In a move that is expected to cost the UK Treasury tens millions of pounds in lost taxable online gambling revenues, Ladbrokes has become the latest multi-million pound gambling business to leave the online gambling-friendly climes of the UK for other online gambling-friendly, but more importantly, tax friendly climes.

Although a few years ago online gambling was legalized and regulated in the United Kingdom, the government's large taxes levied on the popular internet pastime have been the subject of much debate and controversy. Many UK gambling companies have complained that the high taxation rate (15 percent) has given their offshore-based rivals an unfair edge, as they also compete in the lucrative UK gambling market, but pay far lesser taxes (some as low as 1.5 percent).

The issue finally came to a head when William Hill recently announced that because the UK government has failed to address the issue, it decided to relocate to Gibraltar. Not long afterwards, Ladbrokes announced that if William Hill left the UK it would be forced to consider following suit in order to remain competitive.

And that consideration has now turned into a confirmation. Said Ladbrokes CEO, Christopher Bell, 'As a result of intense competitive pressures we have no choice but to relocate our online gambling arm overseas. Operating from the United Kingdom has become unsustainable and we will relocate by the year end.'