How to obtain an Isle of Man gambling license?

Types of Isle of Man gambling licenses

The Isle of Man allows applicants to get 1 of 4 types of license, depending on the type of company.

Basic license

• Cost £35,000 per year;
• Issued for 5 years;
• The holder may offer any game, including games which are not on the list determined by the Gambling Oversight Commission (Commission);
• With the approval of the Commission the holder of the basic license can offer his own gaming solutions to sublicensees.

Sublicense

• Can only be obtained by a person who plans to operate in conjunction with a partner, the holder of the main license, and using its technology.
• Players are registered as such, which belong to the sublicensee, but have access to the partner’s games. A sub-licensee can only have one partner, while a company with a master license can have any number of sub-licensees.

Aimed at smaller companies, which are just starting to build their own gambling business and at companies, which have assets to monetize (e.g. player database) but do not have gambling infrastructure.

License to provide network services

• “Extended” version of the basic license, allows operators to provide services to players who are registered with an operator that does not have an OM license, without re-registering the data of these players; Cost £50,000 per year;
• Issued for 5 years.

Software License

• A new type of license, created under the new OM legislation provisions that came into force on February 22, 2019;
• The main purpose of this license is to increase confidence in licensed gambling software developers by creating an open registry, as well as simplifying licensing for operators who plan to obtain a basic license and use gambling software that has already been licensed;
• Cost £35,000 per year;
• Issued for 5 years;

Please note that this license is not mandatory for gambling software developers who want to provide it to OM-licensed operators, but it greatly increases the status and credibility of your company.

Minimum requirements for applicants

In order to obtain an OM gambling license an operator must meet the following criteria:

• Have an OM-registered company
• The company must have 2 local directors
• All players must be registered on the OM servers (except for the network services license)
• Bank accounts must be opened at a bank located in the OM, unless otherwise agreed with the Commission.

Note, the list of requirements is much longer, all other items that relate to AML, software, providing beneficiary information are similar to other jurisdictions.

The government fee for applying for a license of any kind is £5,000.

Reasons to choose an Isle of Man gambling license?

In 2001, the Isle of Man became one of the first jurisdictions in the world to regulate gambling at the legislative level.

Corporate tax for companies providing online gambling services is 0%, personal income tax is progressive with a maximum limit of 20% and a maximum tax base of £120,000, the charge on GGR ranges from 0.1% to 1.5% depending on the size of the GGR and type of gambling services.

OM is a leader in the telecom industry and is often used as a testing ground for all innovations in online gambling.

The main advantage of the gambling license is that OM is in the “white list” of Britain, which allows companies with a license OM to advertise their own product in the UK market, as well as the “white list” of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (37 countries).

With a sovereign credit rating of AA1 from Moody’s and AA+ from Standard & Poors, the government and businesses in OM work together to achieve the best results, resulting in the continued development of the gaming industry and increasing confidence in OM-registered operators.