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Belize
Belize, located on the northeastern coast of Central America, is the only English-speaking country in the region. It borders Mexico to the north, Guatemala to the south and west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east.
Despite being a popular tourist destination, Belize is one of the few countries in the world where you won’t find global fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Starbucks, or KFC. The country focuses on preserving its local businesses and culture, offering a more authentic travel experience.
Belize became a popular low-tax jurisdiction in the early 1990s with the enactment of its International Business Company (IBC) Legislation. Between 1990 and 1997, over 3,000 IBCs were registered, benefiting from modern corporate laws and strong confidentiality. Belize was rated highly by offshore jurisdiction rating agencies for its banking secrecy, legal system, and tax regime.
The Computer Wagering Licensing Act of 1995, introduced in 1996, regulates online gambling in Belize.
The Belize Computer Wagering Licensing Board manages licensing for online gaming, overseeing operators that provide wagering services over the internet.
Licenses can only be granted to businesses incorporated in Belize, and the board has the authority to grant exclusive licenses.
Initially, it would cost you $50,000 to apply for a license. You also needed to be prepared for a $500,000 deposit, a gambling tax rate of 35%, the need for a separate bank account for customer balances, transaction fee of 5% or $20. A 15% Withholding Tax. And so on!
Also; if you didn’t live in Belize, you had to move there.
Not surprisingly, the Belize license didn’t prove to be that popular, with the noteworthy exception of Bwin who had a license there in 2007.
But yes! In 1995 they specifically refer to the internet in the Computer Wagering Licensing Act. To quote: “Computer Wagering Service means computer service which allows computer users to wager on sporting events or other games of chance against each other through the Computer Internet.”
And then “Computer Internet” means any publicly accessible data transmission network, or any privately-owned data transmission network which is authorised to transmit such data;
The term Computer Internet is used more generically at that time. It refers to any sort of data transmission network rather than specifically to the Internet as it was then.
The fact is that Belize seems to have picked up the potential of licensing online gambling before anyone else!
