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Responsible Gaming Day
Industry News - January 2007
McCreevy statement on US and the WTO
30/01/2007: Charlie McCreevy, EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, addressed the ECON Committee of the European Parliament.
UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport Publish Criteria for 'White List'
29/01/2007: The Department of Culture Media and Sport have published their criteria for countries to be added to the 'White List'. It sets out what information the Secretary of State will employ when considering whether to permit gambling operators based in a country, territory or jurisdiction outside the EEA to advertise their gambling activities in the United Kingdom.
Dutch Ministry of Justice May Launch Investigation into ‘Illegal Gambling’
29/01/2007: dutchnews.nl has reported that the Justice Ministry is to launch an investigation to see if steps to stamp out illegal gambling introduced after its last probe six years ago have been successful. The department also wants to find out how much money is involved in the illegal online gaming.
eCOGRA Announces Results of International Survey
23/01/2007: eCOGRA has announced the results of its international survey of online gaming.
Partouche Oral Hearing
19/01/2007: The oral hearing in the case against Partouche took place before the Criminal Court of Nanterre (the same Court which is in charge of the investigation of the bwin case). These proceedings relate to the partnership sealed by Partouche with a poker website located abroad.
Delinquency Prevention Bill Passes through Senat
11/01/2007: The Delinquency Prevention Bill has passed through the Senat and will be sent back to the Assemblée Nationale. During its passage there was an amendment to a small part of the bill. Text within the Bill stated that ISP’s would have to define a list of illegal online gaming sites. This part of the Bill was originally a ‘decret’ meaning that it would become law, however the amendment which was passed ruled this section a ‘circulaire’ instead which means that it is merely a note, doesn’t have legal status and is therefore unenforceable.
Malta Refuses to Enforce French Judgement
10/01/2007: The Maltese Court of Appeal has refused to enforce a judgment brought by a French court in a case brought by the French horse racing operator Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) against the Malta-based online bookmaker Zeturf. The original judgment by the French tribunal in July 2005, upheld by the Paris court of appeal in January 2006, had ordered Zeturf to cease taking bets on horse races held in France. However, the Maltese court concluded that “the matter was of administrative nature and therefore falls outside the scope of the EC regulation”. It said PMU was “incorporated as a commercial entity and yet regulated by an ‘ad hoc’ law that gives it power that is usually not allocated to private enterprise”.
Legislative Proposal sent to Belgium Parliament
10/01/2007: The government has already sent its legislative proposal to the parliament where the 'Legal Affairs Committee' will soon start working on it. The Government is acting surprisingly fast, which means that there is also some time pressure on our side.
Legislative Proposal Reviewing the Gambling Law lifted out of Programme Law
10/01/2007: The 'legislative proposal reviewing the gambling law' has been lifted out of the Programme Law, which was voted upon in the Chamber and the Senate just before Christmas. This is an unusual development since it is common practice that the Parliament usually simply ‘rubber stamps’ the Programme Law without debate.
AAMS Issues New ‘Blacklist’
02/01/2007: AAMS has issued a new ‘blacklist’ of online gaming websites. This list was issued because the 2007 Budget replaced the articles of the 2006 Budget under which the blacklist was formed. The new blacklist contains 637 websites.
