Regulation round-up 18 December 2012
The biggest regulatory news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (12 December to 18 December 2012).
Reid-backed Federal online poker bill dead
Legislation failed to attract sufficient Republican support to progress in ‘lame duck’ session.
Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl have ditched efforts to pass online poker legislation in 2012 after failing to attract enough cross-party support.
The co-authors of the bill had hoped to introduce the bill during this year’s lame duck session in which Congress reconvenes after election day until the new term officially begins on 9 January next year.
With Nevada and Delaware already passing their own egaming legislation and the likes of New Jersey, Illinois and California attempting the same, the Reid-Kyl bill was seen by many as a final chance to introduce a blanket regulation for online gambling in the US.
A leaked version of the bill in November confirmed it would legalise online poker only, with all other forms of gambling bar horseracing prohibited.
However senate majority leader Reid’s failure to attract sufficient support from his opposition party has seen the chances of its progress in 2012 expire, with his chief of staff David Krone telling the Las Vegas Review Journal late on Friday: “Our goal is definitely to try again next year but Senator Reid’s feeling is that after a while there comes a time when you’ve lost momentum, you’ve lost consensus you’ve built. There will be a window next year, but I don’t see it going long.”
ARJEL introduces sports betting restrictions
Punters no longer able to bet on football or basketball matches that have no bearing on relegation or European qualification.
French regulator L’Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) has updated its sports betting legislation to limit the number of bets bookmakers can offer on football and basketball.
The changes, which affect the top two football divisions and a number of basketball leagues, prevent customers from betting on matches which have no bearing on promotion, relegation or deciding which teams qualify for European competition. Games between teams whose league position will not change regardless of whether they win or lose a game are also affected, with operators banned from offering odds on such games, even if the team is in the relegation or European qualification slots.
ARJEL described this as a move to combat gambling addiction by preventing players from placing bets for the sake of betting, and claim that the ban will help prevent match fixing with betting rings thought to target inconsequential matches and several high-profile examples emerging in the Italian leagues over the past few years.
Seven days in regulation:
Analysis: Time for the European Commission to bare its teeth
While the initial noises around October’s European Commission action plan on online gambling were positive, there was a nagging sense among some that we had seen this all before.
Questions had been raised in the past with regard to protectionist or uncooperative egaming legislation from European Union member states, however the EC “ for all its opinions and commitments to investigate “ had, until now, failed to prevent countries such as Belgium, Greece and Germany from introducing unpopular regulation seen by certain operators as being both prohibitive and non-compliant with EU law.
It was back in July 2009 that the EC first issued an opinion against Belgian proposals, which were considered non-compliant with European free-market principles. But when regulatory proposals were subsequently implemented, operators maintained that nothing had been done to make up for the shortfalls identified in the previous decade.
Poll: Should the US casino industry change tack?
With Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl’s federal poker-only bill officially dead the US casino industry has once again spent large sums pushing for proposals that were ultimately always likely to fail. But the slimmest of chances was, and perhaps always will be, all it needs to continue to pour millions of dollars into lobby firms’ accounts. There must come a time, however when a change of strategy is needed and now is arguably the time to do just that.
European regulators set up informal association
Four European regulatory bodies have announced that they will work together on an informal basis in a move to share market data, discuss regulatory and technical standards, and ways to tackle corruption in sport.
SHFL awarded Alderney gaming licence
SHFL Entertainment has been awarded an unlimited Category 2 egaming licence by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.
Jackpot Party awarded Belgian licence
The WMS-owned Jackpot Party brand has been given the green light to operate an online casino offering in the regulated Belgian market.