What is the position of German legal science regarding the decisive issues after the ECJ’s judgments of 8 September 2010?

By Attorney-at-law Dr. Stefan Bolay, Hambach & Hambach law firm

An analysis of the following essays: Streinz/Kruis: „Unionsrechtliche Vorgaben und mitgliedstaatliche Gestaltungsspielräume im Bereich des Glücksspielrechts“ (Requirements under union law and discretion of the member states with regard to the design of gambling law) (NJW 2010, 3745 et seq.) and Heine: „Glücksspielstaatsvertrag ade? – Zur Bedeutung der jüngsten EuGH-Rechtsprechung“ (Goodbye to the Inter-State Treaty on Gambling? – On the consequences of the latest ECJ judgments) (NJW-aktuell 41/2010, 16 et seq.)

1. Are the ECJ’s judgments binding for the national courts, meaning that these courts will have to decide that the German gambling monopoly does breach union law? … Continue Reading

EGR: Germany a deeply divided market

By Stephen Carter, published in eGaming Review magazine, issue January 2011, p. 14

20.12.2010

Recent court rulings by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and German judges has further shaken the fragile foundations of the country’s gaming monopoly based in its State Gambling Treaty.
These ructions began late last year when respective CDU and FDP parliamentary group leaders Hans-Jörn Arp and Wolfgang Kubicki in the German state or Länder of Schleswig-Holstein announced that in 2011 remote gambling operators would be able to obtain online sports betting, casino and poker licences based on “the Danish model” – a 20% gross profit tax – and be able to operate when the current Treaty lapses from 1 January 2012 onwards. (…) … Continue Reading

Romania to promulgate the on-line gaming bill. Online operations not authorized in Romania illegal.

On November 16, the project of the law on the organization and operation of gambling games for the first time regulating online gaming and betting and declaring illegal and punishing online operations not authorized in Romania has been approved by the Chamber of Deputies (decisional chamber) with 171 votes pro, 1 against and 4 abstentious (176 MP’s present), following a tacit approval by the Senate on the 19th of October. On November 24, the law has been sent to the Romanian Presidency for promulgation. Promulgation is expected any day now.
As forecasted, the law has been approved with very few changes in respect of the criticism of the EC. To the point, the concessions made concern: … Continue Reading

INTERGAMING – ITALIAN LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY UPDATE

It could hardly be disputed that when it comes to remote gaming (such notion including Internet, mobile and interactive tv), the Italian market is at present the most, and probably also the best, regulated gaming environment across Europe. So much so, that the basic principles of the Italian regulatory model combining the possibility to offer quite a wide range of remote gaming services to the requirement of doing it only and strictly under the scope of a locally-granted licence, have been replicated also across the Alps by other jurisdictions (notably France and Denmark) that recently decided to open up their domestic markets. More European countries are now poised to follow suit in the months to come (Spain for one) although they are understood not to be aiming at copy/pasting the Italian model altogether given also the various peculiarities (highlighted in bold below) of such model whose main features can be summarised as follows … Continue Reading

i-Gaming Global Legal Update Italy

The Italian approach to i-Gaming – Historical background and current landscape

Over the last four years Italy stood out as the pioneer, champion and leader of a new regulatory approach to remote gaming that eventually became a reference model in Europe for those jurisdictions (like France and Denmark) willing to open up the respective gaming markets without however giving up their ruling powers in crucial areas like licensing, compliance and taxation.
Although traditionally Italy has a very solid track record of slow-paced and highly controversial decisions whenever it comes to introducing unprecedented reforms in any business sector, it must be acknowledged that in the case of gaming things happened fairly quickly and smoothly.  Indeed the three triggers of the Italian landmark reform of remote gaming were: (i) a mounting political pressure from the Brussels authorities on Italy for its heavily monopoly-driven legislation which resulted in several infringement proceedings being launched against Rome, (ii) the consistent jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice in various cases involving local agents of a Liverpool-based bookmaker who accepted bets in Italy that were then sent and remotely processed in England via a data transmission system without however holding a betting licence granted by the Italian gaming authority (see in re Gambelli, in re Placanica), and last but not least, (iii) the large Treasury budget deficit that early in late June 2006 induced the then Prodi-led cabinet to pass overnight emergency legislation aimed at feeding the Italian state’s coffins with new sources of tax revenue to be generated from the partial liberalisation of the domestic gaming market and the simultaneous launch of a fresh licence tender contemplating for the first time ever the award of pure remote gaming licences.  On 2 August 2006 the governmental decree (soon re-branded “Bersani Decree” after the name of the then Minister of Industry) was converted into law by the parliament.
The main features of the landmark 2006 reform can be summarised as follows. … Continue Reading