The argument to protect monopolies continues elsewhere – a Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling in September last year determined that the Austrian government can prevent foreign gaming companies from operating there. The case – relating to two founders of the Austrian-facing Bet-at-home – ruled in favour of the continued existence of a state gambling monopoly in the EU member state, providing legislation meets certain criteria such as “ensur[ing] a particularly high level of protection” for consumers. Monopoly operator Casinos Austria AG remains the only company to have received the green light from the Austrian government to operate in the country, and last year saw the CJEU overrule local legislation ordering those offering egaming services to Austrian customers to have their servers located onshore, on the grounds that the requirement was not compatible with EU law. However, citing the success of Danske Spil and PMU in France, which has seen amounts staked online increase by more than 25% year-on-year, Franssen argues there is enough evidence to say the liberalisation of markets actually bene?ts the incumbents, rather than cannibalises them. “In general terms, what you can learn is in opening up a market you can de?nitely say that
it gives an enormous impulse to the incumbent as opposed to what they say in a political debate ahead of a market opening,” he says. “The whole remote business that is added to their offering is so much easier for the incumbents to market to the local customers because they already have a very trusted client base. So there is enough proof of positive effects of market opening on the positions of incumbents.” Madsen knows, however, that the hard work has only just begun: “We have had a great start to the year but we can already see our competitors ?ghting back. We have to keep strengthening and getting better – the competitive environment will give us strength. No one wants to give us the market share for free.”
“WE HAVE HAD A GREAT START TO THE YEAR BUT WE CAN ALREADY SEE OUR COMPETITORS FIGHTING BACK”
Hans Christian Madsen
NETHERLANDS TO RELEASE DRAFT EGAMING REGULATION
Efforts to prepare laws relating to online gambling were thought to have been put on hold since the Dutch government collapsed in late April following failed budget talks. However, eGaming Review learned last month that work on draft regulations has continued within the Ministry of Justice with a plan to ?nalise a law to ensure no further delays will be incurred when a new government is established before the end of the year. Politicians are currently attempting to form a coalition cabinet between the VVD rightwing liberals and the social democrats of the Dutch Labour party under a new leader, Diederik Samsom. The draft is set to be issued to industry stakeholders early in 2013 for consultation, and despite many expecting a closed market with limited licences and games to be sought, a source close to the matter told eGR he expected the draft to mirror the more liberal Danish model. The consultation is expected to last two or three months. Justin Franssen, head of the gaming practice group of VMW Taxand, said: “The draft will probably come much earlier for consultation than we had originally anticipated. From just looking at what the state secretary has mentioned in the last year or so, I expect the draft to highly likely re?ect a lot of the elements of the liberal Danish egaming model. “I’d imagine now that the gambling dossier could again be put into the coalition agreement,
and then head through the legislative process. But I wouldn’t be surprised if a law isn’t passed before the end of next year.” Currently state-run De Lotto is the only company in the Netherlands with a licence to run lotteries and games of chance in which the participants pick their own numbers. Plans for Dutch egaming regulation ?rst surfaced in October 2010, when the Dutch government con?rmed it intends to issue online gaming licences in an attempt to regulate an industry, which could bring in €10m a year in the auctioning of licences alone. However, little progress has been made, and authorities instructed offshore operators to block Dutch players from accessing their sites in February this year following a Supreme Court ruling that the ban on international gambling ?rms operating in the Netherlands
did not breach EU free trade agreements. A move to a model re?ecting the Danish system launched in January this year would be a stark contrast to its neighbour, Belgium. The Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) has been bullish in its pursuit of those operators that continue to serve the country’s citizens without a licence, introducing a blacklist which already includes highpro?le names such as bet365, bwin.party and Winamax. However, its compliance with European law has been contested, with some taking issue with the requirement that operators must ?rst possess a land-based licence (or a partnership with a landbased licensee) in order to receive online accreditation. To date, both bwin.party and bet-at-home have taken the BGC to court, with the former seeing its claims dismissed and the latter case yet to be resolved.
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