Regulation
Regulation
GREECE
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting and lottery. Operator type: All products are exclusively reserved for the monopoly providers, although 24 transitional licences for private operators remain active, with all products permitted. Status: The enabling regulations that implement a Greek online gambling licensing regime are yet to be implemented. In 2012, a‘ transition period’ commenced, whereby the Greek government granted 24 transitional licences to operators, enabling them to keep transacting with Greek residents. The fate of the 24 licences is still unclear, although the Hellenic Gaming Commission launched a consultation on the reform of the country’ s online gambling regulation in late 2017. Any new licensing regime is not expected to be introduced before 2019, at the earliest. Tax authorities in Greece are currently investigating the 24 licensees for taxes owed on operations from 2010-11.
HUNGARY
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery. Operator type: Only the state monopolies( Szerencsejáték Zrt. and Magyar Lóversenyfogadást-SzervezőKft) and local concession companies can apply for a licence. Status: Amendments to Hungarian gambling law came into force on 1 October, 2015, and allow only two land-based casinos to hold remote casino concessions. The regulator has since issued fines, a number of which have been challenged, against unlicensed operators that continue to target the market. In June 2017, the ECJ determined Hungary’ s gambling regime to be incompatible with Article 56 TFEU. A subsequent ECJ decision in February 2018 ruled against the Hungarian requirement that online gambling operators must have a land-based licence to offer online gambling services to Hungarian citizens, further strengthening arguments that the current regime is incompatible with EU law. The Hungarian Ministry of Justice has stated its intention to continue to seek to enforce the existing regime despite the most recent ruling. A draft bill that would introduce payment-blocking measures was notified to the EC on 15 December, 2017, although the bill does not appear to have been adopted to date.
IRELAND
Regulated gambling products: Online gaming is not specifically accounted for in Ireland’ s outdated legislation and as such is currently unregulated. Operator type: Online betting regulated since August 2015. Status: Ireland is currently updating its legislation, which will create a comprehensive igaming regime. In January 2018, the Irish Cabinet gave the go-ahead to draft a new version of a bill that was first proposed in 2013. Ireland’ s opposition party tabled its own legislation in response, citing a lack of progress by the government on its own bill. Amendments to the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 have also been proposed. Legislative progress is not expected until late 2018 at the earliest.
ITALY
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery.
Operator type: Fully regulated market. Status: The Stability Law 2016, passed in December 2015, introduces various measures affecting the remote gambling industry, including tax changes and a tender process for the award of 120 new online gaming licences. The tender process for applications closed on 19 March, 2018. On 7 August, 2018, the Italian parliament approved a decree which prohibits gambling advertising and sponsorship. The advertising ban took effect on 14 July 2018, although ongoing advertising contracts remain valid until the earlier of their expiration date or 14 July, 2019. The sponsorship ban will apply from 1 January, 2019.
LUXEMBOURG
Regulated gambling products: Lottery. Operator type: Monopoly. Status: The general prohibition on gambling appears sufficiently wide to cover all forms of online gambling.
MALTA
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery. Operator type: Private operators can apply for a local licence( except for lottery products). Status: Malta has approved a new Gaming Act that replaces all existing gaming legislation with a single piece of legislation, supplemented by secondary legislation. The Gaming Act, together with directives and regulations, is effective as of 1 August, 2018.
NETHERLANDS
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery. Operator type: Monopoly for all products. Status: The Dutch parliament’ s lower house approved the Online Gambling Bill in 2016, which will introduce an online gambling licensing regime. The legislation will impose a 29 % GGR tax on both online and land-based operators. The bill requires approval from the Senate and licensing is not expected to commence until at least 2019. It is understood that operators that have previously been fined by the Dutch regulator will not be eligible for a licence. In the interim, the regulator continues to implement enforcement measures against operators targeting Dutch players and has announced that, as of 1 June, 2017, it would expand its approach to enforcement to pursue any operators that are“ specifically and unequivocally” targeting the Dutch market. On 2 May, 2018, the Council of State Administrative Law Division ruled that the licence allocation process for the exclusive licences( under the current regime) for sports betting, lotto games and instant lottery is compatible with EU law.
NORWAY
Regulated gambling products: Sports betting, horse race betting and lottery. Operator type: Online gambling is reserved for the two monopoly providers, Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. Status: The monopoly has extended its offering to include live betting, online bingo and casino games in an attempt to redirect traffic from unlicensed sites. In March 2017, the government published a longawaited white paper on how best to regulate the gambling sector, which proposed that the gambling monopoly remain in place and
128 iGamingBusiness | Issue 112 | September / October 2018