As of December 1, UK-facing online gaming operators are subject to a 15% Point of Consumption (POC) taxas part of the enforcement of the new gaming bill of the land, the UK Licensing and Advertising Act of 2014.

While the POC tax is purely the responsibility of gaming operators, it doesn’t mean they can’t pass along costs to consumers or stop offering services. We have already witnessed online poker operators take action that has directly affected UK poker players, with promises of more to come.

A few online poker sites have already renounced their services to the 64 million United Kingdom residents and argued that the new POC tax has made it too restrictive for them to profitably operate.

Some, like Mansion Poker, the first online poker site to announce its decision to remove its services from the United Kingdom in early September, pulled out of the country primarily due to the lack of liquidity in the UK market.

Winamax, PokerStars.fr, and TurboPoker.fr have decided to prohibit their games from UK residents due to double taxation. Dot-fr, or French-operated sites, are already subject to stiff taxes by the French gaming regulator ARJEL. It is believed that adding another tax would create an environment where the rake on dot-fr sites would be too high for players or cause the online poker operator to be servicing these players at a short- and long-term loss to the bottom line. Read about PokerStars.fr’s departure.

Changes for PokerStars‘ players are not over, as PokerStars has implemented rake increases and reduced benefits to players around the world. Some in the industry believe that the new tax regime in the United Kingdom and other countries throughout the year might be partially, if not mostly, responsible for these increases.

PokerStars also has announced a rake increase on rebuy tournaments for players in the United Kingdom and a handful of other countries starting on January 1. There are hints that there could be more changes in regulated countries in the future on the site.

Less competition could be a long-term issue for UK players. Many wonder if the new bill may drive some of these players to grey market sites, as occurs in the heavily-taxed Spanish and Italian gaming markets.

It isn’t all doom-and-gloom for players in the UK. For many other online poker rooms, it is business as usual. Many of the bigger operators in the industry understand they still have an opportunity to add to the bottom line by maintaining or increasing their revenue base. Some UK licensed sites may wind up offering new promotions to grab players who previously played at a room they no longer have access to or the cost of playing just increased.

Many online poker operators are taking a wait-and-see approach. For example, 888 Poker hasn’t announced any changes for UK players. It is believed many sites are waiting a short period to examine the effect of the new POC tax and other requirements of the new gaming regime before deciding on a course of action.

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