EU launches action plan on online gambling
“The commission is not proposing EU-wide legislation on online gambling, it is proposing a comprehensive set of actions and common principles on protection.”
Under the new framework, member states will be free to set the objectives of their policies on online gambling, “[but] ensuring compliance of national law with the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU is a prerequisite of a successful EU policy on online gambling.”
An expert group will be formed by December which will liaise with member states on regulation. The aim is to have coherent EU-wide policies in place over the next two years that will protect consumers.
The commission estimates that online gambling will have revenues of €13bn by 2015. The sector is seeing growth rates of 15% per annum.
There are roughly €6.8m online customers of sports betting, poker, casino and lottery as well as other types of betting. But there are numerous unregulated betting portals, which pose significant risks, including money laundering.
The aim of the EU’s initiative on online gambling is to protect children and other vulnerable groups, including gamblers with previous histories of addition.
Another objective is to prevent and deter money-laundering.
Commissioner Michel Barnier said that he wanted to ban any betting on youth events, and a ban on anyone involved in such youth sports prevented from betting on them also.
His services are also examining 20 complaints from various countries about unfair practices in gambling and Mr Barnier said he would hope to take some of them to the Court of Justice shortly, thanks to new powers given to the EU.
The commission will also look at ways of tackling match fixing through the promotion of faster information exchange, whistle-blowing mechanisms and more national and international co-operation among regulators, operators and stakeholders.
“In concrete terms, the commission will adopt three recommendations addressed to the member states, namely on i) common protection of consumers, ii) responsible gambling advertising and iii) the prevention and fight against betting-related match-fixing.
“Other measures foresee, inter alia, support to the benchmarking and testing of parental control tools; the extension of the scope of the anti-money laundering directive; the promotion of international co-operation for the prevention of match-fixing.”
