In many countries around the world, online casinos must pay fairly high taxes, which has caused several operators to move to offshore locations. To avoid this situation, Denmark has proposed lower taxes for its online casinos, but the European Union is not pleased with this decision.
On Tuesday, December 14, The European Commission started an investigation of Denmark’s current tax rates for online gambling operators. Currently, online casinos are required to pay only 20% tax to the government while the country’s land-based casinos must pay 75% or more.
The European Commission is concerned about land-based casinos losing business to online operators. While this is only a natural progression that comes along with the online gambling industry, the commission believes that the government is actively trying to give online casinos a significant advantage over their land-based counterparts.
Gambling officials in Denmark have yet to voice their reasons for applying such low taxes, but they are likely to be revealed over the course of the European Commission’s investigation. The commission wants other European Union members to voice their opinions on the matter in order to get a well-rounded perspective on the issue before a ruling is made. There is no word yet on how long the investigation will run for.
