The European Court of Justice’s decision last week to rule in favour of the Swedish government in a case related to the Swedish online gambling market has dealt a further blow to the liberalisation of the European online gambling market.
The ECJ upheld the decision of the Swedish courts that only allows licensed Swedish online gaming companies from providing online games (such as poker, casino and online pokies) to Swedish residents.
A number of non-licensed gambling companies have attempted to enter the lucrative Swedish market in recent years and the ECJ ruling effectively rules in favour of the Svenksa Spel, the government owned gambling monopoly.
The case makes interesting reading for followers of European online gambling law. The source of the ruling relates to the case of Sjoberg and Gerdin, two newspaper editors for two major Swedish papers (Expressa and Afton Bladet) who ran advertisements in their papers for online gambling companies that were not licensed in Sweden. The Swedish government were quick to react and took the newspapers to court, the outcome of which was to rule that their actions were illegal.
Feeling that the Swedish courts had acted illegally, the newspapers then took the case to the ECJ. However, the ECJ ruling that the Swedish courts had acted legally sends a clear signal that individual European courts have the authority to protect their state gambling monopolies.
Source: Onlinepokiesclub.com - for the latest gambling news and information on free pokies.
Tags: ECJ rulings, swedish gambling
This entry was written by Jamie on Monday, July 12th, 2010 at 9:16 pm and is filed under News.
