SOURCE: www.amcostarica.com

The Partido Acción Ciudadana has introduced a bill to tax sportsbooks and other electronic betting operations.

The new proposal, No. 16.450, carries a heavier tax burden for betting operations than does the stalled administration tax plan.

This is the latest in a long line of proposals to tax the betting industry which provides a lot of work for young English-speaking residents.

The Acción Ciudadana proposal would also tax betting operations based on the number of employees on their payroll. Up to 20 employees the annual tax would be 15 million colons, about $28,000. At the top of the scale operations with 61 or more employees would pay 28.4 million colons or about $54,600.

The tax is being characterized as a license fee.

Taxing sportsbooks is an easy idea to propose but the politics of passage are complex. In October 2002 sportsbook employees protested for two days outside the Asamblea Legislativa in opposition to a similar tax contained in the proposed fiscal reform package promoted by then-president Abel Pacheco.

The entire plan died in the legislature, effectively blocked by the Movimiento Libertario which has championed the cause of the sportsbooks.

Since then the sportsbook industry has taken a few hits. One major betting operation, BetonSports, stopped taking U.S. bets because its executives were indicted in the United States. The firm is trying to distribute funds to creditors and employees, according to its website.

A large part of the day-to-day operations of Bodog.com has been transferred to a new website because owner Calvin Ayre, said he is having problems with the domain ownership. He appears to have returned to Antigua and just announced an agreement with Morris Mohawk Gaming Group in Canada to operate his gambling sites.

His operation no longer employees many Costa Ricans.

The Arias administration package of new taxes also includes a licensing scheme for sportsbooks. Online casinos and sportsbooks first must register with the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Comercio. Unregistered companies would be illegal here. The Arias proposal begins at firms with 10 employees and specifies a fee of 10 million colons ($19,200) a year. Firms with 61 or more employees would pay 24 million colons, about $46,100. So the Acción Ciudadana proposal is about 18.5 percent higher.

Passing a law and actually collecting the taxes are two different challenges. The sportsbook industry employes North Americans who work there illegally and do not even benefit from social security payments on their salaries.

And sportsbook executives have said in the past that to move the operation to a more favorable country would not be difficult.