France plans to change gambling tax calculation

In France, it’s planned to change the tax calculation for gambling operators. According to IGaming Business, this follows from the contents of the bill on the budget for 2020, adopted recently by the French Senate.

According to the content of the document, tax calculation will be based on gross gambling revenue (GGR), and not on turnover, as is happening at the current moment. According to senators, the previous tax system was too burdensome and impeded the balanced development of this market.

The tax on horse racing bets is proposed to be set at 19.9% ​​of gross gambling income (GGR). The tax for sports betting is 33.8%, and for online poker gambling – 36.7%.

In addition, payments allocated by operators for social security will also be made on the basis of income, not turnover. For betting on races, they will be 6.8% of GGR, for betting on sports – 10.7% and for online poker – 4.1%. In addition, another 10.7% of sports betting income will go to the National Center for Sports Development.

Taking into account all tax assessments, operator payments of total gambling income will be 55.2% for online sports betting, 44.5% for ground sports betting, 40.8% for online poker and 37.7% for races.

Previously, gambling taxes were based on the amount of money that players put. The tax for online racing bets was 13.2% of the turnover, for ground-based racing bets – 7.1%, for sports bets – 9.3% and for online poker – 2%. The tax for payments to the social security system was 1.8% of the turnover for races and sports betting and 0.2% for poker.

Senators expect that with the adoption of new laws in 2020, 586 million euros will be paid to the budget from sports bets, 420 million euros from horse racing bets and 66 million euros from poker bets. In addition, it’s planned to receive 787 million euros from the activities of the casino and 2.48 billion euros from the privatization of the lottery operator La Française des Jeux, which took place last month.

To become law, a document must be ratified by the National Assembly.

Let’s recall that France’s online gambling revenue for the second quarter of 2019 amounted to 343 million euros. This follows from a report published Monday by the French regulator ARJEL.

According to the document, revenue growth compared to the same period last year amounted to 13.5%. At the same time, the figure obtained was 14 million euros less than in the first quarter of 2019.

13 licensed French online sports betting operators reported a 20% increase in sports betting turnover to 1.2 billion euros, and an 18% increase in total revenue to 214 million euros.

The number of active weekly customers increased by 15.3% to 608 thousand. At the same time, bonus offers of operators decreased by 6% year on year.

Turnover and revenue from online horse racing betting rose 8%. Turnover reached 269 million euros, and revenue amounted to 66 million euros.

Earnings from online poker gambling reached € 63 million, an increase of 5%.