June 03, 2010
(SPORTS TECHNOLOGY)European Union countries can ban online gambling, Europe’s highest court has ruled, “if their aim is to combat fraud.”
Reuters (News – Alert) is reporting that the ruling comes as “a blow to the multi-billion euro online betting industry seeking to break domestic monopolies.”
Betastic reports that “The court’s ruling stated that any online offering other than the incumbent monopoly can be restricted, even if operators are licensed in other EU countries, until egaming laws are harmonized across the EU.”
De Lotto, a Dutch non-profit-making foundation which offers games of chance, “had asked a Dutch court to stop residents from using British bookmaker Ladbrokes’ online gambling operation as it was not licensed in the Netherlands,” according to Reuters.
The BBC reports that the Dutch licensing arrangement “effectively gives its lottery company a monopoly over sports gambling. The profits earned by de Lotto are used to fund various public projects, particularly in public health and sports.”
And Betfair, described by Reuters as the world’s largest online gaming exchange, “took its case to a Dutch court after Dutch authorities refused to grant it a license similar to others given to two Dutch companies.”
“Such a restriction may be justified, in particular, by the objectives of consumer protection and the prevention of both fraud and incitement to squander money on gambling, as well as the need to preserve public order,” the court ruled in both instances.
Betfair’s director of European public affairs, Tim Phillips (News – Alert) said: “Until we get a clear lead from the Commission, gambling consumers will continue to be told that their preferred leisure activity is the only one in Europe which doesn’t benefit from an open market. ECJ rulings are not addressing the simple fact that consumer choice between regulated products is being dictated to in a manner which no other industry has to accept.”
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