M ONT H I N M I NUT ES
RIGHT TO
MONTH IN NUMB3RS
CODERE’S COURT ACTION
market disruption £230,000 or common sense?
> Cristina Romero de Alba > partner at Spanish law firm Loyra Abogados
A number of people have called the court action instigated by Codere against alleged ‘illegal’ online gaming operators in Spain a “market disruption”. This is exactly what Codere is trying to avoid, or so it says. The Spanish online gaming market will be disrupted if licences are granted without carrying out common sense checks such as conducting a thorough review of the licence application ?les, requesting payment of taxes due for the last four years, and banning the use of ‘illegally’ gathered databases. Until a few months ago that was what was predicted to happen in Spain. Anything else would not create a level playing ?eld. It would also result in a two-paced market with a group of operators starting from scratch and doomed to (try to) compete with a second group of ?rms, which have been operating in a grey market for years, arguably without abiding by any rules. The injunction ruled by a Madrid court against Sportingbet is clear: unlicensed online gaming is forbidden in Spain. The case against Pokerstars, which is under appeal under the second instance court of Barcelona, mistakenly applied the general principle of free provision of services of the EU Treaty, which does not entail mutual recognition and may be restricted by Member States. The changes in the gaming regulator (the Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego), the delay in granting licences and the creation of a special unit within the Spanish Tax Authority which reviews compliance of operators and their group of ?rms with their tax obligations for the last four years, seems to suggest that the raison d’être of the lawsuits ?led by Codere may have been taken up, one way or the other.
The Smoking Gun on p74
estimated investment provided by PokerStars to save the Isle of Man mobile library – see
15
Number of employees development studio Quickspin hopes to have by the end of 2012 –
see our interview with CEO Daniel Lindberg on p46
TOTEGOLDCUP 50
Tote Ireland celebrates becoming new sponsors of the Punchestown Gold Cup, one of the country’s top staying chases, that will see some of Ireland’s best horses compete for a ?rst prize of
€85,400
$43bn
market cap of Genting Group – read our interview
with Genting Alderney CEO Peter Nolan on p50
“California is the last chance for the rest of the country to have any legitimate chance to stop Nevada from dominating the internet gaming space in the US market”
Former Assemblyman Lloyd Levine casts his eye over state-by-state legislation
turn to page 20
6
Number of individuals from Full Tilt, PokerStars and Absolute Poker indicted on Black Friday - see cover
feature, p36
BLACK FRIDAY
PAYMENT PROCESSORS
FAMILY TREE
On 9 April, nearly one full year after their indictment by US authorities, the ?rst of the Black Friday payment processors were scheduled to appear in a Manhattan court, although at the time of writing the status of certai n plea deals puts this in question. Here we present a guide to the indictees, plus two other key ?gures in the processing of funds for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker.
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