Ireland’s new online gambling point-of-consumption tax (POCT) won’t be delayed, despite the UK’s POCT having been referred to the European Union’s top court.

Ireland’s POCT is scheduled to kick in on Aug. 1 and the boss of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) says that date remains in effect, regardless of the fact that the UK version was referred to the Court of Justice for the European Union (CJEU) this week over concerns that it violated EU rules on the fair movement of goods and services.

HRI CEO Brian Kavanagh told the Irish Times that the CJEU referral was “not an unexpected development” but noted that Ireland’s oft-delayed Betting (Amendment) Bill had been thoroughly poked and prodded by EU bigwigs. Kavanagh maintains that Ireland’s current system – in which online betting is spared taxes applied to land-based betting – was “unsustainable” and thus the country would proceed as planned while “watching what is going on” at the EU level.

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