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As I said earlier the arrest of Bwin execs in France had a great impact in terms of regulation of gambling in Europe.
The European Commission may force France to give up its state monopoly on gambling. The Bwin case a month ago has provoked EU consternation in several countries across Europe. They are targetting the PMU and Française des Jeux.
The case of Bwin (formerly Bet and Win) was just the starting point in a clash between France and the European Union. The company was pursued by French authorities for anti-gaming laws, and asked the EU to intervene. They are now looking at the state monopoly on gambling, currently held by the PMU and the Française des Jeux.
In fact, the French state may be allowed to keep its monopoly, under certain conditions. However, the EU has insisted that Française des Jeux and PMU cannot maintain their monopoly if they are organising national lotteries. FDJ, for example, organises the French national lottery, and has also implemented Euromillions, giving it a share of foreign markets as well.
This latter case has raised the ire of Brussels commissioners, who are furious that the French state is allowing itself to enter foreign markets while preventing competition at home.
The PMU’s strangehold on horse racing betting results in many unsatisfied punters. The explosion in online betting with foreign-based sites in France has happened largely due to the ungenerous odds given by the PMU, who are effectively the equivalent of the British Tote. French racecourses are much unlike their British equivalents due to the lack of independent bookmakers, and many French gamblers find themselves betting online on a variety of events not even proposed by the PMU or FDJ.
The French state now faces the possibility of having to open up its market to competition in exchange for a licence and taxes. It could, of course, take the American route and ban online gambling altogether.
elgood here is a link for you:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8KN7TAO0.htmthank you Filipe!
More news related to a recent court ruling in Dresden-Germany.
Betfair was allowed to continue operations in Germany. Gambling stocks soared on the news.
Here are some links:
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/79682
Madrid to Begin Licensing Online Gambling Sites
This is great news. As I said earlier on this thread the situation in Europe is different from the USA. The pressure here is high and Governments that really understand the pressure that will be put by EU Commission will start to regulate online gambling. This way they can have advantage. France is an exception because they still think they lead Europe in terms of decisions, but they don’t.Following the lead of Great Britain, Spain is the latest country to embrace online gambling and it is only a matter of time before the United States does so to….or we can dream it does.
According to IGamingBusiness, Madrid’s regional government is set to regulate gaming through the introduction of licenses.
“The move comes in the wake of Italy’s decision to regulate gaming, which prompted a flood of applications from UK bookmakers and online companies such as Ladbrokes, William Hill and Gala Coral, who are also expected to bid for licenses in Madrid along with Sportingbet and PartyGaming in the online sector.
“Madrid’s regional government announced that it was allowing minimum €1 bets in games locations as well as telephone and online bets, covering sports and other competitions, as well as allowing internet bets on bingo and casino games.
“The licenses will last for five years and be renewable if the Madrid regulator’s conditions are met. The announcement will also include strict regulations to prevent the participation of young and mentally ill people.
“Italy’s new regulated market has opened up 17,000 licences to the private sector. There will be 7,000 new sports betting shops and 10,000 outlets for betting on horseracing.
“Italy’s legal betting market is worth €3.7bn (£2.5bn). All legal gaming, including the Italian lottery, pools, betting, bingo and machine gaming, is worth €28bn.”
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Gambling911.com News Wire
Originally published December 5, 2006 1:48 am ET
http://www.gambling911.com/Madrid-Licensing-Online-Gambling-120506.htmlSome other links for this news:
http://casino.pokernews.com/news/2006/12/spain-open-online-gambling.htm
ty Filipe!
A favorable legal environment in Spain is quite important for the future of the online gambling in the whole Latinamerica.
At least some good news (and brains) to stop this ridiculous domino effect since the US ban.
Good find
Some politicians in Denmark are now talking about copying the US Law. And Ladbrokes recently lost their lawsuit against the danish monopoly :drunk2:
More good news, from Italy and Spain:
Italy, Spain usher in new gambling regs
By Bradley Vallerius
11 December 2006Gaming regulators in Italy and Spain have passed legislation to liberalize land-based and Internet betting, prompting a deluge of license applications from foreign operators.
In Italy, the government is auctioning off 17,000 licenses for sports and horse racing betting at shops and other outlets. Companies have been invited to bid for the number of outlets for which they want licenses. Sports wagering will also be permitted online.
Remote casino gaming and brick-and-mortar casinos are also being regulated by Italy. More than 30 companies– many of them bookmakers, including Betfair, William Hill and Unibet-— have already received licenses to offer remote gaming. Remote wagering on skill games and person-to-person betting exchanges is also being regulated.
The Spanish federal government has enacted legislation allowing sports betting in shops, retail outlets and online, and regional governments were given the ability to impose conditions as they see fit. Madrid’s regional government published regulations outlining its licensing conditions last month. Unlike Italy, Madrid has established a fixed license fee and a limited number of licenses. But license holders can open as many shops and outlets as they please.
Britain’s largest betting operators appear well-placed to take advantage of the opening markets. Gala Coral already operates an Italian-language Internet site and a betting shop in Genoa. Ladbrokes entered into a joint venture agreement with Italian firm Pianeta Scommesse in August and bought three betting shops in Turin last month. And William Hill is finalizing a joint venture with Spanish firm Codere after the European Commission announced last week that it would not oppose such a partnership.
“Essentially, this is a case of creating a new market or converting an illegal market into a legal market,” said Nilay Patel, corporate finance manager for William Hill. “We don’t have the facts, figures and information on which to make sensible estimates of the potential size of the opportunity.
“Until we actually have a couple years of operating experience in these markets, we really don’t know how they’re going to develop,” he continued.
Italy had, until recently, resisted the notion of allowing foreign companies to offer Internet betting and gaming products to its citizens. The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance had gone so far as to order the country’s Internet Service Providers to block access to the websites of foreign betting operators in February. But when foreign betting operators complained Italy’s policies violated European Union free trade laws, the country became one of nine Member States against whom the European Commission launched infringement proceedings.
Taking over in April, new prime minister Romano Prodi’s government is ushering in far-reaching economic measures, including an early mini-budget intended to cut the country’s deficit by more than 11.2 billion Euros. The gambling and betting industries are among the most substantially affected.
good good better better
I think that very few casino have the licence to operate in Italy and in Spain.
there is the risk that very casinos are out.Hi again, just one more post to keep you informed. Germany failed to ban online gambling. Read the article. This is only a beginning but I think they will give up this proteccionist idea like in Britain, Spain, and Italy recently
GERMAN DECISION ON ONLINE GAMBLING BAN POSTPONED
Unanimous decision proved elusive for 16 state premiers
Premiers from the 16 German states (provinces) were unable to reach unanimous agreement yesterday (Wednesday) on proposed laws to protect state gambling monopolies by banning online gambling in the country.
The heads of the individual German states met to discuss the ban, which would have to be approved by the federal parliament. Three German states – Bavaria, Saxony and Hesse – have already introduced state laws. Most of the German states run lucrative monopolistic lotteries and are keen to protect these revenues, according to the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
If Germany were to deny access to its gamblers on protectionism grounds, it could find itself at odds with the European Commission, which is fighting to liberalise the European gambling market, but faces opposition from local and national governments who want to preserve state lottery and gambling monopolies.
The three south German states that have outlawed online gambling were doing so because they decided that an Austrian public company, Bwin Interactive, infringed their monopolistic law by not acting with their authority.
Bwin welcomed the postponement. “This decision is a very sensible one,” said Steffen Pfennigwerth, owner of Bwin in Germany, a 50 percent joint venture with Austria’s Bwin Interactive. “The states will now have sufficient time to develop a legal framework for the German betting market in accordance with European law and the constitution,” he said.
Bwin has been active in the campaign to liberalise European gambling, carrying out education initiatives and laying a complaint against France’s gaming laws, alleging that these conflict with the open competition principles of the EC Treaty. Should the European Court of Justice find that to be the case the ruling would likely apply to all countries, including Germany, should it change its gambling laws.
German press reports indicate that the state of Schleswig-Holstein was chiefly responsible for the defeat of the banning move at yesterday’s meeting. To carry the motion, a unanimous vote was needed to ratify the proposed legislation, but it fell short when the leader of the state of Schleswig-Holstein declined to sign-off on the law. The other 15 German states were apparently agreeable “in principle” to the proposal.
Whilst no firm statement is yet available, media reports are suggesting that the 15 states that agree on the proposed law could attempt to go ahead with it anyway. If this happens there could be further ructions, as politicians from Schleswig-Holstein have reportedly said that they would take the matter to the German Federal Court.
And if the 15 states pressed ahead, it could also raise questions of legitimacy of state licences to operate gaming sites throughout Germany.
The German states will be cautious about the reaction of the European Commission to such a protectionist initiative, too. The leader of the state of Lower Saxony has already been quoted as saying that any state treaty would be presented to the European Commission to examine its compliance with EU obligations.
In summary, the attempt at a unanimous agreement on banning legislation, which would have placed the issue before the federal parliament some time next year, has failed and the status quo remains unchanged.
Has there been any updates or changes with these countries? It seems hard to find any info, at least not in English.
