Gibraltar to introduce new gambling licences and tiered system for fees
Smaller online gambling operators will pay less for a Gibraltar gambling licence. Large operators will pay more.
Gibraltar.- A new tiered system is to be introduced for gambling licence fees in Gibraltar, with larger operators to be charged more and smaller operators less. The changes follow a consultation that came on the heels of the proposed new Gambling Act.
Until now, online gaming and betting operators and land-based gaming operators all paid £100,000 a year for their licences, while B2B suppliers paid £85,000. However, the government noted that “licensing fees for startup operators and small operators who are building for growth can be a disproportionate cost in the early stages of the life cycle of the business”.
As such, it’s decided to introduce a tiered system for remote betting and gaming licences. The fee to be paid will now depend on annual gross gambling yield (GGY) in each vertical (operators need a separate licence for each vertical they operate in, so, revenue from sports betting, for example, will not affect the licence fee tier for a remote gaming licence).
Online gambling operators with an annual GGY of more than £300m within one vertical will now pay a £200,000 licence fee. Operators generating between £20m and £300m will pay the existing fee of £100,000 and those with GGY of up to £20m will now pay half that amount, £50,000.
New Gibraltar gaming licences
The new tiers apply to both remote gaming and remote betting licences. Meanwhile, the government has introduced a new betting intermediary licence for betting exchanges. The fee for this will be £100,000 irrespective of GGY. Lotteries will also pay £100,000 regardless of revenue.
The is also a new type of licence for providers of marketing services, including affiliates that conduct their services in or from Gibraltar. The fee for this new licence will be a £50,000 annual fee.
New system for B2B gaming licences
Meanwhile, Gibraltar will no longer have one single type of supplier licence. Instead, there will be separate licences for aggregators and software suppliers. Aggregators active in one vertical, i.e., betting, RNG Gaming, lottery, live casino – will be charged a licence fee of £85,000 per year, plus 1 per cent of the revenue made from its Gibraltar licence holders’ operations. Those that operate in more than one vertical will be charged an extra £15,000.
For software suppliers, including platform providers, there will be three tiers of licences like the system for operators. Platforms with sales under £200,000 from Gibraltar licensees or no more than two approved integrations will pay £20,000 per year. Those with sales of up to £550,000 will pay £50,000 and those with sales higher than that will pay £85,000.
Data providers and suppliers of services such as compliance or anti-fraud products will also have their own licences, which will cost £50,000 per year irrespective of revenue. Holding entities based in Gibraltar for companies that do their business elsewhere will pay a £50,000 licence fee. Entities not covered by the other licences but that hold or manage customer funds must pay £50,000 annual licence fee.
In June, Gibraltar’s gambling commissioner, Andrew Lyman, expressed surprise at Gibraltar’s inclusion on the FATF Grey List. But despite FATF chair Marcus Pleyner saying that one cause was failures to apply sufficient anti-money laundering fines, Lyman said the regulator wouldn’t toughen its standards for fines.
Lyman said Gibraltar had already been proactive in taking action against money laundering, noting that the gambling commission has reached six regulatory settlements with five operators for a combined £3.7m since 2020.
He said that if those cases were not considered to be “tangible progress”, the FATF had provided no criteria on what would be deemed sufficient. He also stressed that the regulator would not be changing its standards in any way.
