The man charged with promoting the development of internet gambling in the Island – Andrew Jarrett of Digital Jersey – says that a new “point of consumption” tax levied on eGaming companies with UK-based customers sweeps aside the old order – an order in which Jersey hardly featured at all.
He predicts in a major interview in the latest edition of Connect magazine, which is out now, that a burgeoning eGaming industry could create hundreds of jobs in the Island – although he concedes this could be tempered by restrictions on imported labour.
“Are we playing catch-up? No. Were we slow on the uptake? Absolutely,” he told Connect. “We were so slow that we weren’t included on a UK ‘whitelist’ of approved jurisdictions before it was closed in 2009. And that effectively put a ball and chain around us, in terms of our relevance to the market.”
Mr Jarrett joined industry representatives and civil servants at Britain’s leading eGaming conference, ICE, earlier this year, around the same time the Jersey Gambling Commission awarded its first eGaming licence to a local software developer.
Mr Jarrett hopes that the new “bespoke” regulatory regime and the strength of Jersey’s legal and trust industries will be an attractive lure to global eGaming companies looking for a tax neutral jurisdiction to call home.
“We have created remote gambling legislation that allows the regulator to sit down with a company to work out what they want to achieve, where they are trying to do it and the licence is largely bespoke to them.
“We had 250 leads at the ICE and we whittled that down to about 95 of real potential and more than ten are working on due diligence packs to submit to the Commission. It’s early days but the initial response is encouraging.”
Mr Jarrett added that economic diversification, new skills and jobs and another source of revenue for the States would benefit all Islanders.