Industry News - May 2008

Betsson Testing Limits With Swedish Retail Debut

28/05/2008: Internet gambling operator Betsson will open a retail outlet in Stockholm later this week, in apparent defiance of Sweden’s current gambling law. Modelling the outlet on those at the heart of the ECJ’s Placanica case, Betsson believes current European legal doubts will leave Swedish authorities unwilling to take action, although rival online operators seem reluctant to follow their lead.

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ECJ Forces Its Will On Italy’s Betting Market

27/05/2008: It’s official: this summer Italy will see a new bid process for the 329 betting shop licences that were - according to the EU - extended unfairly in 1999 in a procedure that bypassed the tender of that year.

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Swedish Minister Floats Idea Of Svenska Spel Sale

23/05/2008: Sweden’s finance minister has hinted that the government is mulling a break-up of Svenska Spel that may lead to the sale of its softer gaming products.

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New Watchdog For Greek Gambling

22/05/2008: Following a meeting in Athens in the middle of May between European Commission internal markets tzar Charlie McCreevy and Greek economic minister George Alogoskoufis, it was announced this week that a new watchdog will be set up to oversee gambling

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Betfair Sees ECJ Referral From Dutch Court of Justice

20/05/2008: The Dutch Council of State has referred Betfair's case against the Dutch Minister of Justice to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

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Svenska Spel’s Internet Terminals Under Fire

16/05/2008: Swedish gaming operator Svenska Spel has been threatened with heavy fines for placing potentially illegal gaming machines in retail outlets. The machines in question, although marketed as internet terminals, are alleged to be pre-programmed gaming machines with shortcuts to Svenska Spel online.

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Dutch Banks Reluctant Players In Payments Ban

15/05/2008: The Dutch Banking Association is unlikely to co-operate with any rules put forward for blocking payments to online operators unless they see evidence of a criminal conviction of an operator, according to lawyers close to the situation.

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Ex-Svenska Spel Boss In Plea For “Functional” Gambling Market

14/05/2008: Jesper Kärrbrink, the outgoing chief executive of Svenska Spel, has called on the Swedish Government to allow a regulated gaming market to take shape within the country, allowing licensed online operators to compete with the incumbent gaming monopoly.

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Talk Of Dutch Payment Ban Gathers Support

14/05/2008: Revived proposals by the Dutch Ministry of Justice to introduce payments blocking measures against non-licensed online gambling operators have been met with approval by Holland’s state sanctioned operators, who nevertheless say they have not lobbied for the change.

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French Prime Minister’s Report Proposes Rigid Gambling Regime

08/05/2008: An official report prepared for France’s Prime Minister François Fillon suggests that any ‘controlled opening’ of France’s online gambling market must be accompanied by tough restrictions to shore up the new regime. The report recommends the government explore whether bans on payments and advertising for unauthorized sites, originally included in last year’s Delinquency Law, could be squared with EU law under a more open licensing system - from which betting exchanges, spread betting and certain types of online casinos games seem likely to nevertheless be excluded.

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