The Gambling Commission against illegal websites

To bring some order into the online gambling market in the UK, the Gambling Commission has proposed that all Visa and MasterCard transactions to illegal sites should now be blocked.
This clever idea did not get adopted by the House of Lords during the meeting on the 18th of March.
Nevertheless, the British regulatory authority does not seem to have had its last word.
For now, the UK can be considered as one of the most tolerant countries with regards to issuing online gambling licenses to operators.
However, this is about to change.
As the government needs more money, it is no longer prepared to condone tax evasion within an industry that turns over millions.
According to British law, licensed operators are not required to have a registered office in the country.
The majority of them are expatriates, mostly offshore companies that are based in Antigua and Barbuda, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man and Malta.
Because of this they do not have to pay local British taxes, and they are not subject to the 15% tax on all bets made from UK players.
This particularly advantageous situation may disappear because of the bill with the name Gambling (Licensing and Advertising), which will force operators that offer services in the United Kingdom, even offshore, to pay taxes of 15% of their gross income.
This tax will be capped, and the regulatory authority wants to put everything in place to reduce the number of illegal operators.
In this context the gambling commission has proposed that all Visa and MasterCard transactions to illegal sites should now be blocked.
This proposal was rejected by MPs with 171 votes for, and 185 votes against.
Obviously the operators were delighted about this decision, since agreements are in place between the regulator and the three most important payment methods on the market: Visa, MasterCard and PayPal.
PayPal agreed to block all the transactions to and from websites that do not have a UK licence at the end of 2014.