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EGBA shares EU concerns on draft Italian remote gaming decree
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) welcomes the Commission’s decision to issue formal Comments on the Italian draft decree on remote gaming. The draft, which lays down requirements for remote gaming operators to become operational in Italy, also raised stronger concerns from Malta, in the form of a Detailed Opinion. These decisions strictly prevent Italy from adopting its Decree in its current format before 29 April 2008 and should bring it to amend its draft
Sigrid Ligné, EGBA Secretary General said: “The Commission’s decision suggests that even if Italy has demonstrated a genuine improvement in bringing its legislation into line with EU law, the Italian remote gaming legislation still contains measures that don’t serve a clear legitimate public order interest.”
In particular, the EGBA believes that in establishing a level of protection for Italian citizens, the Italian authorities must take into account the protection already provided by operators that are fully regulated, licensed and established in other EU jurisdictions. The new Decree also seeks to impose severe restrictions on the types of games which a player based in Italy can bet on thereby reducing competition, all to the detriment of the consumer. Finally, the obligation for remote operators to connect continuously to the AAMS (Italian regulator) centralised IT system generates additional costs and is a technological barrier for foreign operators. Even if this requirement has been imposed to limit crime prevention, it is disproportionate and does not take into account other less burdensome and less costly technological measures that already exist in other EU jurisdictions and have demonstrated success in achieving the same objective.
“We hope that in the coming weeks, the Italian authorities will amend their draft decree in an attempt to solve the few remaining issues” added Sigrid Ligné, EGBA Secretary General. The Italian draft Decree was notified to Commissioner Verheugen’s services and Member States under Directive 98/34/EC at the end of December 2007. The notification procedure is aimed at preventing Member States from creating new barriers to the internal market freedoms by giving the opportunity to the Commission and Member States to evaluate the content of a draft law before it is adopted.
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For further information or comment please contact:
Sigrid Ligné: +32 (0) 2 256 7527
The EGBA is an association of the leading European gaming and betting operators Bet-at-home.com, bwin, Digibet, Carmen Media Group, Expekt, Interwetten, PartyGaming and Unibet. EGBA is a Brussels-based nonprofit making association. It promotes the right of private gaming and betting operators that are regulated and licensed in one Member State to a fair market access throughout the European Union.
The Notification Procedure
Under Directive 98/34/EC, Member States must notify to the European Commission and other Member States draft regulations regarding products and Information Society Services such as online gaming and betting, before adopting them. This procedure is aimed at preventing Member States from creating new barriers to the internal market freedoms by giving the opportunity to the Commission and Member States to evaluate the content of a draft law before it is adopted.
The notification of a text to the Commission opens a three month standstill period during which the draft text must not be adopted. This period allows the Commission and Member States to ascertain whether the draft text presents any unjustified barriers to the internal market. The Commission and/or Member States may then issue:
· a Detailed Opinion, if they consider that the draft text would, if implemented, create barriers to trade, services or establishment within the EU;
· Comments, if they consider that the text, although in principle in line with EC law, raises issues of interpretation or requires further details; or
· no response, if they consider that the text is compatible with EU law and does not raise any issue of interpretation or further questions.
A Detailed Opinion attempts to prevent Members States from adopting a text, which contains barriers to the internal market, or to urge them to remove the restrictive provisions, thereby avoiding unnecessary legislative work and future EU infringement proceedings.
Once a detailed opinion has been issued, the standstill period, during which the draft text must not be adopted, is extended by one month. If, after this time, the draft text is adopted without modification, the Commission can immediately commence an infringement procedure against the Member State’s newly adopted legislation. On 31 January 2008, the Commission launched an infringement procedure against German gaming legislation after it failed to respect the Detailed Opinion issued by the Commission against it in March 2007: Link to Commission press release.
For more information on the comments against the Italian draft decree click here.
To access the TRIS database and search for other draft laws see:http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tris/pisa/app/search/index.cfm?lang=EN
For more information on the notification procedure in general see: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tris/info_brochure/2003_2121_EN.pdf