EUROPEAN REGULATION
In conjunction with Christopher Elliott of DLA Piper London, iGB Affiliate provides a regulatory snapshot of
iGaming markets across the European Union. This includes all regulated products and legalised operator types
within each country, and any impending market updates.
AUSTRIA
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports
betting, horse race betting, poker, casino,
bingo and lottery.
Operator Type: Licences for sports betting
and horse race betting are available for
private operators on a regional basis within
Austria whereas poker, casino, bingo and
lottery are controlled by the monopoly,
Austria Lotteries.
Status: It is understood that the
compatibility of Austria’s monopolistic
gambling laws with European law may be
scrutinised further following aggressive
marketing practices by Austria Lotteries
and a recent ECJ decision regarding the
restrictions imposed on gaming machines.
Even so, the Member State has proposed
changes to its regulations (notably a ban
on in-play betting) to help curb match
fixing, measures with the Austrian
Bookmakers Association has agreed to
implement.
The Austrian government recently put
forward a proposal to block unlicensed
offshore operators targeting the country,
although details of the next steps of the
proposal are unclear.
BELGIUM
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports
betting, horse race betting, poker, casino,
bingo and lottery.
Operator Type: All products are
available to private operators save for
lotteries, which are reserved exclusively
for the monopoly provider. However,
online operators need to partner up
with local casinos in order to satisfy the
land-based establishment requirement;
or alternatively, apply for one of the 34
retail licences (F1 licences) which can be
extended to cover online (F1+ licence).
Status: The new Belgian government has
published a coalition agreement which
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iGB Affiliate Issue 50 APR/MAY 2015
proposes to increase the number of landbased casinos from 9 to 11. Accordingly,
thi