'London was unprepared!' Britain is being accused of transforming Gibraltar into the 'world's largest internet casino

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Britain has been accused by a financial crime author of transforming Gibraltar into the “world’s largest online casino.”

Gibraltar now has roughly 35 licensed gaming companies. Several British enterprises have shifted their headquarters to the Rock in order to take advantage of the territory’s 10% corporate tax rate.

Oliver Bullough, a researcher and author of books on financial crime, asserted in his book ‘Butler to the World’ that Britain has transformed Gibraltar into the “world’s largest internet casino.”

He said in an interview with publico.es: “In Britain, gambling and betting were considered harmful as addictive and taxed heavily until the mid-1990s, when Victor Chandler and his wife, who ran a leisure and entertainment business, opted to open offices in Antigua and Gibraltar where the Home Rule governments had little or no control over gambling.

“Chandler anticipated online gambling, as well as seeing the love of betting on horse racing, even dog racing, or on football results, including the Spanish league, in Asian countries, and elsewhere in the world.

“Chandler was followed to Gibraltar by the big names in the industry such as Coral, Ladbrokes, or William Hill; they closed their administrative headquarters, not their establishments, in Britain and set up their offices with online gambling in Gibraltar.”

Victor Chandler eventually rebranded as BetVictor in 2004 and faced a £2 million regulatory fine in February 2022 after a UK Gambling Commission investigation identified failings in fairness, social responsibility, and anti-money laundering.

Mr. Bullough also noted Gibraltar’s economy was “60 percent dependent in the 1980s on the British Ministry of Defence, which provided 40 percent of the jobs in its shipyards”.

He continued: “The Governments in London had no economic alternatives for the colony so they let it become an online casino under the mantle of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, who invented the concept of responsible consumers who were considered potential gamblers.

“Business boomed, and gambling addicts and debt addicts, too, but that wasn’t the companies’ problem; they lifted the advertising ban as well, so it’s worked out well for them.”

He also said Brexit has not affected the gambling and betting sector, adding: “Gibraltar is different from Las Vegas or Macau because in those cities most of the casinos are land-based; however, the cities are the same in the sense that their economies depend on gambling and betting and the governments’ treatment of these activities.”

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