Regulation round-up 14 October 2014
The biggest regulatory news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (8 October to 14 October 2014)
GBGA defeated in PoC legal battle
Britain’s new licensing regime to go live on 1 November after judge rules in favour of UK government
Great Britain’s online gaming industry will be regulated on a Point of Consumption basis from the start of next month after the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA) this failed in its bid to have the Act quashed on legal grounds.
Following a two-day judicial review at London’s Royal Courts of Justice last month, Lord Justice Green today handed down a judgment which backed the UK government and British regulator’s plan to introduce its new regulatory framework.
“In relation to the issues arising I have concluded that the claimant has not established that the new regime is unlawful under EU or domestic law,” Lord Justice Green said in his judgment.
“Further, I reject the submission that the new regime will create perverse incentives and lead to the creation of an illicit market of unscrupulous service providers.
Norwegian regulator fires warning shot at foreign operators
The Norwegian Gaming Authority (Lotteritilsynet) has fired a warning shot to foreign gambling companies operating in Norway after the regulator recorded an upsurge in what it described as “illegal marketing”.
Lotteritilsynet sent a letter to more than 20 egaming operators including Unibet, Mr Green, Leo Vegas and PokerStars to remind the firms of Norway’s gambling laws and request that they adapt their operations and marketing.
“[The] Gaming Board has recently recorded increased demand and marketing of some of these companies,” Atle Hamar, director of the Lotteritilsynet, said.
Seven days in regulation:
Singapore parliament bans online gambling
Singapore’s parliament has passed a gambling bill prohibiting all forms of online gambling apart from a narrow exemption for not-for-profit sports betting operators.
All online casino and poker games will be made illegal while remote sports betting will only be allowed in cases where operators are based in Singapore, operate on a not-for-profit basis, contribute to social causes and have a clean compliance record.
Second minister for home affairs S. Iswaran said the exemptions to the Bill were included to prevent the sports betting from going underground and boosting illegal activity, as was seen with land-based gambling in the 1960s and 70s.
German licence suspension appeal rejected
Sports betting operators remain locked out of the German online market after an appeal against the suspension of the Hessian Ministry of the Interior’s licensing procedure was rejected.
An appeal lodged with the state’s Higher Administrative Court sought to reverse an interim suspension on the procedure enacted by the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden following the submission of legal challenges from a number of unsuccessful licence applicants.
However the appeal was last week rejected by the court, meaning that operators who received a licence last month will remain unable to launch in the market until the legal challenges have been heard.
Dutch clampdown continues with new fines
The Dutch regulator has continued its clampdown of unlicensed operators targeting customers in the country after fining the operators and trust company of online casino sites 7red.com and royaalcasino.com a total of 310,000.
Personal warnings were also addressed to a number of people found to be responsible for the sites with a number of investigations into their precise roles and functions at the companies set to continue.
The Dutch Gaming Authority began to investigate the two sites after receiving several complaints from consumers and subsequently warned them for offering Dutch-language versions of their sites.
EGBA slams “restrictive” Norwegian online gambling regime
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has hit back at Norway’s “restrictive” online gambling regulatory regime and questioned whether the country’s monopoly system is compliant with European Union Treaties.
The Norwegian Gaming Authority (Lotteritilsynet) recently sent a letter to more than 20 egaming operators including Unibet, Mr Green and PokerStars advising them to halt their targeting of Norwegian players.
In response to the letter, secretary general of the EGBA Maarten Haijer told eGaming Review that, as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), it was “questionable” whether Norway’s monopolised gambling system was consistent with previous European Court of Justice rulings and EEA requirements.