By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The Government has collected some $12-$13 million in taxes from web shops to-date, the Minister of Tourism said yesterday, adding that 10 applicants had paid the $10,000 necessary to obtain a copy of the licence tender.

Obie Wilchcombe, though, reiterated that the Government has still not decided how many web shop licenses it will issue.

 “No decision has been made on that yet. It is all being evaluated, and at the end we will see how all of them co-exist, how they acn exist in the market place, and if the market place sustain them,” Mr Wilchcombe said.

“So far we haven’t arrived at that decision, but we are looking at it to be fair to them and to the success of the industry.”

According to information from the Ministry of Finance, there were at least 251 web shops in operation, run by 35 different companies, in 2013.

  Mr Wilchcombe told Tribune Business that 10 web shops had paid the necessary $10,000 to the Gaming Board to obtain the licemnce Request for Proposal (RFP), which was issued last week.

“We are collecting funds in reference to the liability for taxes and other fees that are owed. It is going quite well so far,” he told Tribune Business.

“Up to this point, just on that alone, we might be around $12-$13 million. We are hoping to get around $23 million. We collected $100,000 over the last couple of days, but that is in addition to the other taxes we got earlier, which is around $9-$10 million, so we are collecting our funds.”

Applicants must pay $5,000 plus another $2,000 to cover the licence application fees for each gaming house premises licence. A $100,000 deposit, plus another $30,000, is required to cover investigation costs into each gaming house premises licence application.

While the RFP sets no limits on the number of licenses that can be issued, the terms set out in the document suggest that the sector will have a smaller number of operators and web shop locations.

The Gaming Board tender also stipulates that the interactive games made available by operators “must have a theoretical and demonstrable return to player percentage of not less than 75 per cent”.

And an “essential minimum requirement” of the RFP is that applicants make ongoing contributions, for the duration of their licenses, to sustainable community and social causes such as education, health care, sports and the arts, culture, charities and public parks and spaces.

Similar demands are made in respect of “sustainable’ corporate social investments in the Bahamas, with applicants required to devote a “minimum amount of 1 per cent of taxable revenue” to each.

Mr Wilchcombe yesterday praised web shop operators for their compliance throughout the transition process. “They have done an outstanding job in terms of compliance. We have had no difficulties with them; in fact they have been the aggressors,” he added. 

“They have been working  with us, and the issues they have got before us we have sought to deal with as quickly as we can, but they are very organised and worked well with us.

“We have had no push back at all. There is nothing I could look at that says we are concerned to the point that we are seeing any negativity. In fact, they are working very professionally.”