Re:Billionaire Porn King Reinvents Himself as Japan's Startu...
by dalbasal on Thursday August 24, 2017 @04:27AM
(#15088478)
It’s all a response to the legal status of investments and gambling (both have different categories with different rules).
Whether something is really gambling or investment is kind of philosophical. UK regulators tend to use different terms, specifying subcategories.
UK gambling regulations allow anyone old enough to gamble on these exchanges under the same rules as sports betting. If this was classified as financial services, regulations would be a lot stricter.
Anyway, UK gambling winnings are not taxable for consumers. The casino’s cut is taxable (15% of gross), which is transferred directly to the customer via spreads whether they win or lose.
People actually prefer it this way because investments are taxable income but gambling winnings are not (and gambling is of course legal here).
So you get almost the opposite situation, where spread betting is dressing itself up as financial trading not to deceive the regulators but as a way for people to invest in a more tax friendly manner.