The anticipated ripples have already begun to form following the splash made in the online gambling world by William Hill’s news last week.  Last week, William Hill announced that is was moving a large portion of hit online casinos and online gambling operations over seas to Gibraltar.  Gibraltar, with a long standing history in welcoming online casino operations only requests a fraction of the tax that the United Kingdom requests of online casino providers.

Industry analysts predicted that once a giant like William Hill moved to operating its online casinos in the Gibraltar, other companies in the United Kingdom would follow, if for nothing else but to keep up competitively.  Finally, in less than a week, another United Kingdom gambling provider has confirmed that it will be moving its online casino operations off shore to Gibraltar as well.

The United Kingdom Treasury will lose millions of pounds because Ladbrokes will be changing its operator’s license over from the pricey United Kingdom license to the much more affordable Gibraltar license.  According to Christopher Bell, Chief Executive of Ladbrokes, the company had no other choice but to move due to “intense competitive pressures.”

“Operating from the UK has become unsustainable and we will relocate by the year end,” continued Bell.

There is no real detailed information on how much money Ladbrokes intends to save on operating its online casinos from Gibraltar, but the company did say the change would “materially improve the competitiveness and operating margin” of its online casinos.  According to industry analysts, William Hill has the potential to save as much as GBP 7 million each year on the Gibraltar relocation.