Gambling giant GVC Holdings is poised to quit the Isle of Man after a special meeting today (Thursday).

The Athol Street, Douglas, registered business, called the extraordinary meeting (EGM) in Gibraltar to consider a proposal to relocate the company’s place of management and control and consequently its tax residence to the United Kingdom.

GVC said in a notice on its website that the special resolution was approved along with backing for the adoption of new articles of association of the company to facilitate this relocation.

And the proxy votes lodged by shareholders were overwhelmingly in favour of the move.

As of today GVC has 582,739,946 ordinary shares of one pence each.

There were 481,464,490 votes cast for the special resolution with just 107,610 votes cast against the proposal.

GVC Holdings PLC is one of the world’s largest sports-betting and gaming groups, operating both online and in the retail sector.

The group owns a striong of well-known brands including Coral, Ladbrokes, Foxy Bingo, Gala and partypoker.

GVC Holdings was incorporated as an Isle of Man enterprise in 2010, where it maintained its management control to benefit from a more suitable tax regime for its business purposes.

However when the FTSE firm published its EGM document last month it revealed that should it transfer its management control to the UK, it would be able to remove existing corporate directorial restraints.

When Isle of Man Newspapers reported last month about the planned meeting an island gambling expert said he thought GVC pulling out of the island would mean a ’minimal’ financial loss to the island.

Warwick Bartlett, chief executive of Castletown based Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) told Business News last month: ’My guess is they had a choice between taking on larger premises and employing more people or moving the corporate head office back to the UK.

’The last General Election now provides a lot more clarity for the next five years for all businesses that have substantial investments in the UK.’

To his knowledge GVC has never been licensed to operate any gaming sites in the Isle of Man.