Gaming tax collection plunged 4.8% to 91.9 million Euros in 2009 in Castille-Leon, explained the regional Treasury Minister Pilar del Olmo. She considered that one of the main reasons of this decrease is the growth in online gambling promoted by betting houses that don’t pay this tax in Spain.

To reverse this trend Castille-Leon will try to establish a tax rate for the online gaming companies. The counsellor recalled that at the 'Financial Measures Act' has already included the need to regulate the gambling by Internet, in this sense, the regional government could act more faster than central government.

However, Del Olmo recognized that is very complicated to regulate this activity "for the difficulty in establishing the tax residence." They know that revenue losses are associated with the way the things are now, that’s why they want to be the first to demand that gaming domains must be registered in Castille-Leon and pay taxes there, but they know it’s very complicated because these companies may be located in tax havens like Cayman Islands.

The government of Castille-Leon collected 37.5 million Euros from other taxes, representing a decrease of 2.93% in comparison with 2008.

Source: Diario Norte de Castilla