With a few weeks away until George Osbourne, the United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer announces the 2012 Budget, one of his associates has come up with a plan to somehow raise an extra £300 million in tax revenue. The plan comes from Conservative MP Mathew Hancock, and his idea to raise this substantial amount is to ask new legislation to crack down on tax avoidance by the gambling industry.

It isn’t much of a surprise that the gambling industry wants to avoid paying as much tax as they possibly can, because no one really wants to pay them, no matter where you are in the world. Currently, popular gambling companies pay 15 percent tax on their profits. When it comes to gambling profit, it’s in the millions, and it stinks to pay that much to the government.

One way that gambling and betting companies have been able to avoid paying that hefty 15 percent tax is to base their operations in various international locations. One very popular place that companies like to base their operations in is Gibraltar. Out of 20 of the main bookmakers in the country, 18 of them are doing just that.

The bill that Hancock has proposed, which was debated in the commons recently would close this tax escape loophole. The tax would be levied where gamblers make bets, instead of where the bookmaker is located.