Leading supplier of online gaming and sports betting software, Playtech (LON:PTEC), recently agreed to pay tax authorities in Israel €28m (approximately US$32 million) after a decade-long audit of its activities in the country.

According to the Financial Times…

The London-headquartered company said in a January 2, 2019 trading update that in the next 30 days it would pay €28m, to be included as an exceptional item in its 2018 accounts, resulting from a civil tax audit for the entirety of its activities in the Western Asian country between 2008 and 2017. The agreement was reached with the Israeli tax authorities on December 31, 2018.

No penalties:

The supplier said that “transfer pricing adjustments in relation to certain functions” had been made by Israeli tax authorities, but that the agreement reached meant “no penalties are to be imposed as a result of the audit.”

The FTSE 250 company reportedly cautioned investors in late December that they due to tax hikes they estimated to be at €20-25 million, they would reduce adjusted EBITDA for 2019. That was a result of the Italian government changing the country’s gambling tax laws.

Shares drop:

The Financial Times reports that shares in Playtech fell 55 percent over 2018.

Quickspin growth:

Swedish online casino games developer, Quickspin, a subsidiary of Playtech, announced in December that it would be among the first providers to have its award-winning portfolio of games offered by operators on January 1, 2019, when the Scandinavian nation‘s re-regulated gambling market opens.

Slots from the Playtech Group company also went live in Italy’s regulated market with Pokerstars, a leading online brand globally.

And for the first time, they are also live in Poland as part of the Playtech Group’s casino tie-up with Totalizator Sportowy. The state-owned company owns the LOTTO brand and is the Central European country’s largest operator.