Yesterday a UK Parliament Member introduced a controversial bill that would require all online gambling companies that wish to offers their services in the United Kingdom to acquire a license from the UK Gambling Commission.

Tory MP for West Suffolk Matthew Hancock introduced yesterday a motion that intends to radically change the current online gambling legislation of the country. According to the proposed motion, online gambling providers would be forced to apply for a valid UK license before being able to operate in the country.

The reason why this would constitute a major drift from the current policy is that at the moment operators that are licensed in other "whitelisted" jurisdictions may provide their services in the UK without the licensing of the UK Gambling Commission. The two most prominent jurisdictions whose licenses are also valid in the UK are Gibraltar and Alderney.

The motion proposed by Hancock will be presented to the Parliament on February 7th where MP Hancock will have the chance to convince his fellow Parliamentarians in a 10 minutes speech. After this, an opposition member will receive another 10 minutes in order to rebut Hancock's proposal.

It has already been reported for a long time now that the UK intends to change its online gambling policy, but few expected a move such as the one proposed by MP Hancock. Experts believe that while most politicians agree with the change proposed by Hancock, the majority would still prefer a less aggressive approach.

Recently many UK based land and online casinos expressed their opinion that the country should introduce a secondary taxation regime on offshore companies. Off-shore companies generally pay less tax in their licensing jurisdictions and are not required to pay any UK tax at all, therefore putting UK-based companies in a serious disadvantage.

Experts believe that it is very likely that sooner or later the UK will implement a new online gambling legislation that would require off-shore companies licensed by "whitelisted" jurisdiction to pay tax in the UK as well.

The companies that would be hit the most with such a move are renowned online casino and sports betting operators William Hill and Betfair who moved their HQ away from the UK exactly in order to avoid paying the heavy UK online gambling taxes.

Tags: UK Online Gambling Legislation, United Kingdom, UK Online Gambling Tax