Regulation round-up 12 February 2013
The biggest regulatory news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (6 February to 12 February 2013).
Christie signs conditional veto of egaming bill
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie calls passing online gaming “a historic opportunity” saying he will approve a bill if his suggestions for greater player protection and transparency are met.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has issued a conditional veto of a bill which would legalise online gambling in the state, calling the legislation a “historic opportunity” and setting out crucial amendments which must be made for the law to be approved.
Christie, who many thought would block the bill entirely as he did in 2011 due to fears around cannibilisation of land-based casino revenues, revealed that he recognises the “value and potential” of internet gaming to support his administration’s efforts to revitalise Atlantic City’s ailing industry.
However he will not let Assembly Bill 2578, which would allow the state’s 12 casinos and racetracks to act as operators of online poker and casino games, to be implemented in his current form.
In his conditional veto Christie asks that online winnings should be taxed at 15% rather than the suggested 10% and for the existing law to “sunset” or undergo a complete review after 10 years.
Analysis: Egaming in New Jersey is finally becoming a reality
Supporters of online gambling regulation in New Jersey rejoiced last week, as a breakthrough was finally made in the form of a conditional veto by Governor Chris Christie.
Unlike in 2011, when Christie killed a similar bill proposing the legalisation of any online game that is currently offered in the state’s casinos including poker, yesterday’s veto appeared more of an endorsement than it did a critique.
Now, with a few tweaks primarily concerning greater transparency and stricter rules to support problem gamblers, bill sponsor Raymond Lesniak should at long last see his legislation signed into law.
Seven days in regulation:
Nevada Governor pushes interstate gaming law
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval has urged state lawmakers to expedite the passage of a law allowing its licensed egaming operators to accept wagers from other states, claiming last week’s progress in New Jersey has made the change a necessity.chrii
His message came just 24 hours after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he would approve online gambling should certain amendments be made, making it likely to become the third state to take the step.
Under Nevada’s current online gambling regulations there is no provision to allow the Silver State to enter into compacts with other states, something included in both New Jersey’s and Delaware’s laws.
France trails Italy across poker and sports
Italy’s egaming market is generating more than 7% more revenue than France, according to new figures published by French regulator ARJEL which provide a comparison of the dot.fr and dot.it markets.
The Italian total comes in at 749m, while for France [excluding unavailable data from former monopoly La Française des Jeux (FDJ)] the total is 698m.
Italy leads the way for GGR across cash poker (209m to ARJEL’s 188m), tournament poker (151m to 109m), and sports betting (167.8m to 138m), however France makes up for this discrepancy with its 263m GGR in horse betting for the year ended December 2012.
Four more names added to Belgian blacklist
Multiplayer skill games site wataro.com is among four domains to be blacklisted this month by the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC).
The domain – which features match-three games and quizzes – is joined on the blacklist by Wataro-powered jeuxcash.rtl.be, a site created for Luxembourg-based broadcaster RTL.
Sports betting business betwingo.com and online scratchcard operator scratchmania.com are the other blacklisted operators, bringing the overall total up to 64.