Ladbrokes and Betfair have for the last 7 years been fighting for their right to offer online sportsbook gaming in the Netherlands. As things lie, the state-run sports-betting monopoly is operated by De Lotto. Much like the ECJ case of Bwin versus the state run monopoly in Portugal recently, Ladbrokes and Betfair have been fighting the Dutch government based on the idea that prohibition of them offering their services goes against the rules of Fair Trade of the European Economic Community. The stance taken by De Lotto and the Dutch government is that they do not allow more than one licence to be issued for sports gambling under the premise that they can in this way ensure that their citizens are not subject to possible fraud and keep a lid on problem gambling.
Yves Bot, a senior legal advisor at the European Court of Justice, has unfortunately come out spouting the same sort of legal schpeel that we saw the ECJ use to justify its ruling in favour of the Portuguese government in Bwin’s case; ie; that the EU member states are not obligated to acknowledge the legitimacy or operations of betting licences from foreign operators within their own borders. Though Mr Bot’s comments do not denote a binding official statement by the ECJ (as it has still not made an official ruling in the case), they could denote the direction that the court is going to take on the matter.
The only consolation that companies such as Ladbrokes and Betfair can take is that, whilst some countries are choosing to “stand by their monopoly-man” (so to speak), others within Europe are looking to open up their licencing of internet gambling operations to multiple licencees (as per recent Italian and French government activities).
Maybe the Portuguese and the Dutch governments will also realise at some stage that their perceived control of problem gambling and the financial reward gleaned from the state-run monopolies is not a sane enough reason to prohibit other operators from providing their services. Not only can (and do) non-state-run online gaming operators operate within strict legal guidelines – which can be specific to a state and can be strict enough to prevent fraud – but the issuing of multiple (purchasable) online gaming licences can obviously provide extra fiscal resources for a government.
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This entry was written by Nena on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 1:34 am and is filed under News.
