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About Smugglers Cove
The remote gaming duty hike from 21% to 40% in April is also expected to have a significant impact on the black market, with Regulus estimating it could drive the market to be worth up to €1 billion, as consumers choose illegal offerings to access unrestricted bonuses.
Other studies have made similar estimations. In June last year two thirds of bettors surveyed by YouGov said the tax increase, which will also hit online sports betting from next year, would drive them to play with unlicensed operators.
The UK has historically maintained a high channelisation rate due to it being particuarly mature with a huge competitive offering. According to the report, up to 1,491 licensed sites provides sufficient choice for engaged players.
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With such a significant rise in tax, you would forgive the company for cutting wherever possible, but Petra says they have made it work by maximising efficiency, restructuring, and maintaining their offering so the customer doesn’t notice that anything has changed.
“We feel that people are always interested in gambling and that we are the party who should offer that in a safe way. [Holland Casino] has been careful to maintain that, but of course our costs rose very quickly, so we restructured at our head office. We have also been looking at innovations in offerings, which we are currently also testing, including a further development of the Next Zone. We’ve also introduced the double zero in roulette, which we didn’t have previously in the Netherlands,” the CEO says.
“Obviously, in the gaming industry we don’t have a price tag on our product where you can just change the RTP (return-to-player) and your problem is solved, it doesn’t work like that. Especially not if you take responsible gaming seriously.”
About Smugglers Cove
VGW’s $100,000 contribution to Tuberville brings its total campaign contributions in Alabama this year to more than $351,000. The bulk of the funds—$170,000—went to North Alabama PAC, a political action committee managed by operative Steve Ruby.
Ruby is being funded by numerous gaming entities that want to see Alabama legalize gambling and sports betting. His donor list, along with VGW, includes DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
VGW gave $20,000 to state Sen. Andrew Jones (R-District 10) and $15,000 to Senate President Pro Tempore Garlan Gudger (R-District 4). State Sens. Donnie Chesteen (R-District 29) and Will Barfoot (R-District 25), along with Republican candidate John Roberts, who is running in the second district, each received $10,000 from VGW.