Archive for March 8th, 2010
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Governments’ slogan should be: Legalize internet gambling, regulate it, and tax it!
With last year’s global financial downturn, those countries that have legalized online gambling came to heavily rely, unsurprisingly so, upon the revenues generated from legal online casinos and the taxes they generate.
Most countries that allow legal online gambling impose some sort of gambling tax on either the gambling companies or the players making the winnings. How the tax is levied differs from country to country. Some countries choose to levy the tax on individuals bets (winnings, actually) while others (such as the United Kingdom) calculate it based on the gross profits or revenues of the casino operator.
Countries such as Malta, Gibraltar, Antigua and Costa Rica have traditionally offered competitive tax regimes to attract online betting operators to set up business in their jurisdiction and stimulate the economy.
Following the success of many European Union countries, the United Kingdom is set to overhaul its tax regime for online gambling. A number of British-based betting operators such as William Hill had voiced their frustration with the UK tax policy and threatened to relocate to offshore tax havens.
The UK represents the largest online gambling industry in Europe but many other European countries are leading the way in finding new and innovative approaches to regulation and tax. Italy, for example, pressured online poker rooms and sportsbooks to take up regulatory licenses and pay tax which significantly boosted the country’s revenues.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in stark contrast to the United States, gambling winnings in Canada are completely income tax free. Thus, the bottom line is that whether you need to pay tax on your gambling prizes or not depends on where you are playing.
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Monday, March 8th, 2010
A Costa Rican court on Friday handed six months of preventive prison to three Costa Ricans believed to have links to a powerful international drug trafficking ring, the justice ministry said.
The ruling came after a money laundering investigation led the Costa Rican Judicial Investigative Police (OIJ) and Drug Police to raid eight locales, including an Internet café, a law firm and private beach home, in San José, Heredia and Puntarenas, respectively.
Among the detainees was Costa Rican with the last name Corrales, who is believed to have organized all the logistics for the ring led by Silvio Montaño, an important drug runner, according to the ministry. Police said they seized up to 9 tons of the Montaño ring’s cocaine en route through Costa Rica in a span of three months. A Colombian with Costa Rican citizenship, Montaño was arrested early in January in the Colombian city of Cali.
Corrales allegedly handled house purchases or rentals as well as transportation, storage, satellite communications and arranging deals with prostitutes, according to information gathered by the Drug Police.
Another detainee, a lawyer with the last name Bustamante, allegedly arranged false marriages between Costa Ricans and Colombian drug runners. Another man with the last name Fernández helped create private companies to act as fronts for the organization.
Corrales’ daughter, with the last names Corrales Alvarez, was also arrested and handed preventive measures by the court. These prohibit her from leaving the country.
The latest crackdown, which authorities said has broken up a Costa Rica-based financial ring for drug runners, could serve a serious blow to drug traffickers that increasingly use Costa Rica as a stop off on the way to Mexico or the United States, narcotics experts said.
“Let’s be clear, this is what really hits these organized crime groups,” Mauricio Boraschi, director of the Costa Rica Drug Institute, said after the court decision on Friday. “If you manage to hit them in the finances, you’re getting them where it hurts, right on the money,”
Story by TT.
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Monday, March 8th, 2010
Experts agree the Central Valley of Costa Rica, the most populated area in the country, is not ready for a big earthquake, at beast a 6.0 to 7.0 quake could cause major destruction, forget an 8.8 like that in Chile.
If anything serves as an example for the population to fear an earthquake of such magnitude just look at Friday night’s 4.4 tremor that shook the Central Valley.
Fortunately no casualties, injuries or damages were reported in the 10:47pm quake that had an epicentre in Sabanilla de Montes de Oca (San Pedro) with a depth of 7.5 kilometers.
According to the Ovservatorio Vulcanológico y Sismológico de Costa Rica (Ovsicori) – the national observatory for volcanoes and earthquakes – the Friday earthquake came from the Cipreses fault which has not registered any seismic activity in the last 19 years.
Juan Segura of the Ovsicori said that the last time the fault reported activity was in 1991 and up to Friday no other report of any activity from the fault could be found.
However, according to Segura, Friday’s quake did not come as a surprise.
The expert assures that wherever there is a fault an earthquake is possible and Friday’s tremor was felt intensely due to its closeness to the surface.
The Ovsicori has not recorded any aftershocks from the Friday quake and the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) does not report attending any emergencies due to the quake. The only reports are some fallen objects in some homes in Montes de Oca, Moravia and San José.
If the big one were to hit, is San José ready?
We can take comfort that, according to Marino Protti of the Oviscori, it is unlikely that there could be a 8.0 and higher earthquake in Costa Rica and that the most that has been recorded is 7.8 and that was in Nicoya on the Pacific coast, a fair distance from the Central Valley.
According to the emergency response system, the Bomberos, Cruz Roja and the Comisión Nacional de Emergencia (CNE), there is concern that if a big one were to hit San José they are not ready to deal with such an emergency, as the ability to respond adequately is limited.
Protti used the Cinchona 6.2 quake of January 2009 as an example of such a magnitude would completely destroy an area like the Hatillos. Protti adds that in San José a major number of buildings would suffer damage as the tremor would be felt from Alajuela to Cartago.
Collapsed bridges, buckling roads, avalanches of mud and earth would all be part of the disaster.
However, Roy Acuña, president of the Comisión del Código Sísmico del Colegio de Ingenieros y Arquitectos (CFIA), explains that the houses and buildings in the Central Valley will be able to withstand at least a 6.5 earthquake, though there would be considerable damage at the degree.
Some important roads like the Ruta 32 (San José – Limón) could be one of the roads that could suffer major damage from avalanches of earth, due to its geographical location. Acuña did not comment on the new San José – Caldera road, saying only that any road where there is a propensity for earth movements can suffer damage.
Both Héctor Chaves, director of the Bomberos, and Sigifredo Pérez, chief of operations at the CNE, agree that action has to be taken to be ready in the event the Central Valley experiences a big earthquake.
“I don’t want to be an alarmist, there there is much work to be done to face a tremor of that magnitude (referring to the Nicoya quake)”, said Pérez.
Acuña added that many of the buildings in Costa Rica comply with the Código Sísmico (Seismic Code), although a number of buildings built prior to 1974 must be reinforced.
One such building, according to Acuña is the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) main building in downtown San José, while the Instituto Nacional de Seguros (INS) and the Banco Nacional (BN) – two of San José’s tallest buildings – are in condition to withstand an earthquake.
“A strong quake could leave downtown San José more like the scenario in Chile, rather Haiti, as the construction in Costa Rica superior”, said Acuña.
Friday’s quake was reported to have been felt in places on both sides of the coasts (Limón and Puntarenas).
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Monday, March 8th, 2010
In the nothing new or surprising department, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is without 3G cellular phones, USB cellular connectors or portable computers to offer its customers.
It appears that someone screwed up real bad at ICE, since it has hundreds of thousands of 3G lines, but not equipment to offer customers looking for a package deal under its Kölbi plans.
The Gran Área Metropolitana (GAM) – San José – ICE agencies were the first to run out of stock.
ICE officials say the demand for the new service was greater than expected or just another way of saying we screwed up.
ICE offers 3G service in a standalone pricing or in packages that include the 3G telephone by ZTE, LG and Nokia and USB/portable computers just for data customers.
The first phones to go were the Nokia, then LG and last resort the Chinese made ZTE.
Of the 950.000 3G lines ICE installed in December, only 185.058 have been sold so far, the majority moving from the TDMA service.
ICE also reports selling only 10.000 USB data connectors and 1.500 mini portable computers under its Kölbi plans.
Jaime Palermo, speaking for ICE, says that new stock is expected by the end of the month, possibly by March 25.
Anyone who has lived in Costa Rica or has been an ICE cellular customer cannot be surprised at all of this, they have been living the “ICE dream” for many years.
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Monday, March 8th, 2010
A new marina near Quepos is set to open in April, adding oft-requested boating facilities to Costa Rica’s Pacific coastline.
The 55-acre Marina Pez Vela project will eventually include more than 300 slips, ranging from 35 to 200 feet; dry storage facilities and a full-service boatyard, as well as 200 residential units. The first phase opening next month features 100 slips.
For a tropical country with a spectacular coastline known for its fishing, Costa Rica offers relatively few options for the boating world (and the population of boating second home owners). Last year, the ultra-lux Penninsula Papagayo in Guanacaste in north Costa Rica opened its own marina, the country’s first catering to super-yachts.
Strict environmental regulations make it difficult to build anything along the Costa Rica coastline, nevertheless a marina. The Quepos project, which is only a few miles from Manual Antonio National Park, was the first project launched under guidelines of a law approved by the government to speed up marina development. That law was passed in 1998.
In the case of Marina Pez Vela, which has been in development for more than 10 years, demand for slips is driving the project more than the residential component.
“It’s a marina development that will ultimately have residential, versus a residential development that threw in some docks,” Phil Bronstien, a partner in the project, said in an interview a few months ago.
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