GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 11 - January 2010

“The Commission has an obliga- tion under the Treaties to ensure that member states’ legislation is fully compatible with EU law,” saidMcCreevy when he first an- nounced that the EC was asking several countries to take their re- strictive online gambling laws off the books. “This is an important responsibilitywhich it takes seri- ously. Ithas receivedanumberof complaints from operators in the area of sports betting, and it feels obliged to respond.” McCreevy has had a mixed bag of success in terms of opening up online gambling markets within Europe. Germany has strict pro- hibitionsagainstonlinegambling. France plans on liberalizing its markets, but its form of “liberal- ization” looks like it will make it expensive fornon-Frenchcompa- nies to enter themarket. Belgium is requiring that online operators be established in Belgium and have their servers located in Bel- gium in order to gain a Belgium online gaming license. And coun- tries like Portugal have success- fullygone to court todefend their state-runmonopolies. Inwhat couldprove tobe a semi- nal European court ruling, the European Court of Justice found in Liga Portuguesa and bwin v Departamento de Jogos da Santa Casa (“bwin Liga”) that Portugal could maintain a monopoly on Internet sports betting in the interest of “combating fraud and crime.” The ruling essentiallyclears theway forallEuropean states to maintain any state-run sports bettingmonopolies. Additionally, inMarch of 2009, the Eu- ropean Parliament voted overwhelm- ingly thatmember states, andnot theEU, should control the regulation of online gamblingwithin their own states. AndwithFrenchmanMichel Barnier tak- ing over McCreevy’s position overseeing EU internal markets, the push from the European Commission to move to one open market for online gambling isn’t likely tobeas strong. If you think this has gone unnoticed in the marketplace, think again. The new political climate was part of the calculus in theEverest-Mangasdeal. “The clear trend in Europe to- ward individually regulatedmar- kets and the already competitive marketplacemeans there are tre- mendous advantages to having a European partner like Mangas,” saidGigaMedia President Thom- asHui. And it’s against this backdrop thatRight2bet is trying to change the political dynamics surround- ingonlinegambling. At theheartof theRight2betcam- paign is the European Citizen’s Initiative. The initiative – which waspart of theLisbonTreaty that wasfinallyratifiedbyallEUmem- bers in 2009 – allows European citizens to direct the European Commission tobring forwardnew legislation. Inorder for apetition tobe successful, itneeds tohave 1 million signatures from EU resi- dents, and the signatures need to come froma“significantnumber” ofEU countries. Right2bet is attempting to collect the 1 million signatures needed to get the European Commission to consider giving “all EU citizens . . . the right to choose which Euro- peanonlinebettingprovider they use, irrespective of which Mem- berState theyoperate from.” And they’re trying some unique techniques to get the signatures. In addition to being able to sign the petitionon theRight2bet home page, Right2bet also has the “Naked Petition” drive. The Naked Petition drive involves using swimsuitmodels indifferent countries to attract attention to the Right2bet cause. Some of themodels allow people to sign their bodies, and Right2bet uses the op- portunity to tryandgetnewpeople to join the cause. “Trade isoneof themainpil- lars of our prosperity and themajordriverof economic growth. . . . Iwant toensure that remaining barriers to trade within Europe are dis- mantledover time. The Com- mission has an obligation under the Treaties to ensure that member states’ legisla- tion is fully compatible with EU law.” –EuropeanCommissioner CharlieMcCreevy 39 GamblingWithout Borders