Sports betting syndicate legality

thegoat

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With gambling winnings tax free and the national lottery promoting syndicates on their official site; https://www.lottery.ie/useful-info/syndicates, I assume there is no law against a betting syndicate.

As syndicates do not have to be split equally, is there anything illegal or that may leave a tax liability in having a treasurer use their current account and gambling accounts to place bets, despite the treasurer having a very low share of the total bets?
It would result in large transfers to / from the current account of other syndicate members and large deposits and withdrawals from the betting sites.
 
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Apologies, it should have said split equally rather than proportionally - OP is updated now.

My point being, in an extreme example with 2 members of the syndicate, one can fund 99% of bets and receive 99% of returns, while the treasurer only funds 1% of bets and receives 1% of returns.
 
Apologies, it should have said split equally rather than proportionally - OP is updated now.

My point being, in an extreme example with 2 members of the syndicate, one can fund 99% of bets and receive 99% of returns, while the treasurer only funds 1% of bets and receives 1% of returns.

Out of interest, is there a reason why each member doesn't operate their own account funded to the level they are comfortable with. Bets could be agreed together and then each member place them individually (or give someone authority to act on all the accounts)

Otherwise, document the arrangements and keep the backup for the cash movements so you have an audit trail in case of queries.
 
Ok thanks for clarifying. Doesn't sound like there's any problem with what you've described but if the amounts are substantial then there may be questions at some point, so it would be sensible to keep good records.
 
Could the money coming from the treasurer's account not be seen as his/her own winnings and mistakenly it could be viewed that the other syndicate members are receiving gifts from the treasurer?

Would having the document arrangements and records of the cash movements be enough to prove the money is for a betting syndicate making all funds and all members involved in the syndicate able to get their winnings tax free?

If that is the case is their anywhere you could register as a betting syndicate as thegoat has mentioned you can do in lottery syndicates? It would make things clearer that nothing dodgy or illegal is happening when large sums of money are being transferred between bank accounts?
 
From a money laundering perspective they will look through the structure of such an arrangement and focus on the substance.

If you are making large bets and receiving winnings substantively for the benefit of one or a few other people (with a very small own stake) then this isn't a legitimate syndicate.

If for example you have a syndicate where you put in €5,000 at the start of the year and a friend puts in €45,000 for a total of 50k. This is all done through your current account and gambling account. You make a series of small, low-odds bets all year and at the end of the year are are left with €45k. You close the account and share this proportionately.

This would raise suspicions that you are laundering the cash for the friend.
 
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Out of interest, is there a reason why each member doesn't operate their own account funded to the level they are comfortable with. Bets could be agreed together and then each member place them individually (or give someone authority to act on all the accounts)

Otherwise, document the arrangements and keep the backup for the cash movements so you have an audit trail in case of queries.

In one employ I worked we had an investment/gambling syndicate. It cost each member £100.00 per week to be a member. We had an account with a stockbroker and invested each Monday and cashed in on Thursday. About 5% - 10% was gambled with a local bookmaker mainly on GAA matches. Most weeks we gained although we had some losses but overall over the year we remained ahead. You bought into the "investment" every Monday with no obligation to stay in the syndicate longer than you wished.

I don't think we were doing anything illegal. And with our GAA knowledge we did very well there.
 
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