Very little online casino news so how about this debate

As regular to onlinecasino.ie will know we try to keep abreast of any Irish online casino news which we think will be of interest to our readers, or indeed anything relating to online casino games in general. This month however, in the absence of any news concerning either of these topics we thought we would cast our net a little wider. Many years ago, even before the National Lottery was introduced in 1994, two of the most popular forms of gambling were the Football Pools and Spot the Ball. We are told that at its peak three million people played Spot the Ball every week alongside their pools coupon, and it was the foundation of the game’s current owner Sportech. When it comes to playing casino games at an online casino, nobody would argue that the games are anything but a game of chance, but what about Spot the Ball. For the last six years Sportech have been engaged in a dispute with HMRC over VAT payments of £93 million paid by Sportech on receipts from the game between 1979 and 1996. Apparently the arguments concern the question of whether Spot the Ball is a game of chance or a game of skill, with Sportech claiming that it is a game of chance and should therefore not have been subject to VAT. It is not unusual for there to be conflicting opinions over that question when debating some casino games, but in this case there is a huge sum of money riding on the outcome. Sportech thought they had won their case two years ago and were repaid the £93 million in June last year, but HMRC appealed again to a higher tribunal where the judge surprised everyone by ruling that Spot the Ball was not even a game. We are commenting on this topic now because Sportech have now got permission to appeal again to the Court of Appeal. There is however one interesting fact that emerged this week that may affect the decision. Apparently nobody has won the jackpot for over ten years, so both luck and skill seem to be in short supply.