GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 1 - May 2007

53 EU rules against Italy in landmark case The European Court of Justice ruled in March that Italy could not bar gambling companies based in other European Union nations from doing business with Italian citizens. The ruling could force state-run monopolies in Germany and France to open up to competition. The EU has already sent a warning letter to German states saying they had to rework draft legislation that would ban lottery and sports betting on the Internet. The EU says banning foreign operators from offering the same services as domestic operators violates the EU’s principles of freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services. Italy had prosecuted three executives from Stanley Leisure under its criminal code for accepting bets without receiving authorization from Italian authorities. The three operated shops in Italy that allowed people to place bets with Stanley’s home office in Liverpool, U.K. EU tells four to open up gaming markets The European Commission has requested that Denmark, Finland and Hungary change their laws to allow open competition in the sports betting market. The restrictions these nations have placed on betting within their borders are contrary to existing EU law, according to the Commission. The nations also failed to demonstrate that the restrictions are “necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory.” The Commission does not consider the existing, legal national operators in these countries to be non-profit operators, since they are required to meet revenue objectives and they advertise gambling products. Online operators likely to pass on the U.K. U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown dashed the hopes of online casino operators when he announced the U.K. would set its remote gaming tax at 15%. That rate is much higher than the 2-3% tax operators were hoping to get and is not likely to lure any of the companies operating in the tax-friendly jursidictions like Gibraltar, Malta or Alderney. Turkey cracks down on online gaming In late February, Turkey passed legislation prohibiting unauthorized companies – domestic and foreign – from offering online gaming to its citizens. NETeller, bwin and PartyGaming have all pulled out of Turkey as a result of the legislation. Turkey, a candidate country for the EU, may be forced to revisit the issue at some point in the future. The EU has recently begun pushing member nations to open up their betting markets to member nations. EU news roundup A quick look at the latest news from Europe GPWA TIMES | NEWS BRIEFS