McAnulty Kieran; Watts SimonHon KIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you very much Mr Chair. I have a series of questions relating to the proposed offshore gambling duty. I have a potential amendment that I am considering tabling but it is dependent on the responses that I get from the Minister. Just so I understand what the intention is and where we are I won't pad this out but I'll just ask some pretty straightforward questions. What advice has he received in regard to the level of offshore gambling that is occurring? What is the projected revenue that he expects to receive as a result of this proposed duty?There's been some talk in previous parts around online casinos so I'm particularly interested in how this relates to them as well as sports and racing gambling occurring online from offshore operators. And if it the intention is to include sports and racing how does the proposed offshore gambling duty affect the point of consumption charge currently in existence?Hon SIMON WATTS (Minister of Revenue): Well I'm happy to answer a few of those questions and engage in a little bit of to and fro as required. The implementation of the gambling duty as I said is to level the playing field between those operators that are outside of New Zealand that aren't subject to the same taxes as domestic providers. The question around what advice I have received in regard to the scale of that offshore—you know the size of that market and the implications around that there's a couple of components around that. One it is difficult because of the complexity and the element of hidden economy that exists within that to fully scope the entirety of the size of that offshore market. However in the calculation of the revenue assessments that IRD have done in regard to this duty they have used a proxy of the overseas gambling operators that currently do pay GST. Now that is a proxy and that is the best information available but we do know that there will potentially be providers within the hidden economy that are not currently complying with that aspect.What we do expect in the second key element of this legislation around the licensing regime and the regulatory regime—again bringing us in line with other OECD countries that have similar models in place—is when that regulation is put in place then in effect that net will get wider and will be able to ensure that we capture more entities and players in terms of that.In terms of the revenue assumptions I'm happy to provide the exact figure: I think it was around $143 million or $153 million in regard to the overall gaming duty component and there is an additional component in terms of what is forecasted around the introduction of the licensing regime. As I say I'll just caveat out that in terms of how potentially big that broader hidden economy is. So that revenue will be subject to reassessment as and when that comes in and we're wanting to make sure that is implemented in a stable manner.In regard to the conversation and questions that I think the member noted around sports and racing and the other aspects at this stage that is not something that is in the scope. However we are continuing to monitor and assess that aspect in terms of the overall market but it's not something that's on the table at the moment.