WEBMASTER WORLD
bingo and lottery.
Operator Type: Sports betting, poker
and casino licences are available to
private operators. Bingo, lottery and
horse race betting (fixed odds only) is
controlled by the state monopoly.
Status: The Danish online gambling
regime went live on 1 January 2012.
ISP blocking measures are active in
the jurisdiction and the Danish Gaming
Authority has been granted an injunction
in order to block operators and suppliers
that have been targeting Danish customers
without the requisite licence. More
stringent payment protection measures
were also introduced on 1 September 2014.
Proposed amendments to online gambling
legislation (which included proposals for
a specific licence for fantasy sports) have
been delayed by the early call of a general
election to be held on 18 June.
The ECJ ruled in September that taxing
online casinos less than land-based casinos
did not amount to state aid.
ESTONIA
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports
betting, horse race betting, poker, casino,
bingo and lottery.
Operator Type: Licences for all
gambling products are available for
private operators save that the monopoly
has exclusive rights to lottery.
Status: Only 18 operators are currently
licensed in the jurisdiction, 9 of which
relate to online gambling. A “blacklist”
of over 800 operators is constantly
maintained and updated by local
authorities and ISP blocking is in force. It
is understood the Estonian government is
intending to require players to set weekly
or monthly limits before gambling online,
a development which could occur this
year. The draft law containing player
protection measures for online gambling is
scheduled to come into force in June 2015.
FINLAND
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports
betting, horse race betting, poker, casino,
bingo and lottery.
Operator Type: All gambling products
are under the exclusive control of
the three monopoly providers, Rahaautomaatiyhdistys (“RAY”), Fintoto Oy
and Veikkaus Oy.
Status: ECJ ruling confirmed that
Finland’s three monopoly providers are
legally permitted which has subsequently
been written into law. In November
2013, the EC also withdrew infringement
proceedings.
Active enforcement measures are in
place (restrictive marketing for offshore
operators and ISP blocking).
FRANCE
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports
betting, horse race betting, poker and
lottery.
Operator Type: Private operators can
obtain online licences for sports betting,
horse race betting and poker. The
monopoly has exclusive rights to lottery.
Status: France is a regulated market that
has been sanctioned by the EC.
On 13 February 2014, French
Members of Parliament introduced a
bill which amends several provisions
of the French Consumer Code. The
amendments expand the definition of
prohibited games of chance to capture
games that are, even in part, based on
chance.
ARJEL, the French gambling
regulator, is currently carrying out a
review of the country’s online gambling
regime, expected to conclude next year.
GERMANY
Regulated Gambling Products:
Schleswig-Holstein, a small Northern
German state, regulates sports betting,
horse race betting, poker, casino and
bingo. The other 15 states of Germany
currently only permit sports betting and
horse race betting.
Operator Type: Private operators can
no longer obtain licences in SchleswigHolstein, and those in existence will
expire on 30 June 2019. In the other
15 states, horse race betting licences
are available at a regional level but the
position surrounding the 20 available
sports betting licences is still uncertain.
Status: The licensing regime in Germany
is in a state of flux. The 20 Federal
sports betting licensees were named on 2
September 2014, but following numerous
appeals from operators not granted a
licence, the Administrative Court of
Wiesbaden in April 2015 deemed the
tender process to be unfair, and ordered a
rejected bookmaker’s licence application
to be re-considered. The 20 licences
remain suspended and the legal and
regulatory position remains uncertain.
Recently, a player was prosecuted
for participating in offshore online
gambling, but it remains to be seen if
this is an isolated incident.
GREAT BRITAIN
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports
betting, horse race betting, poker, casino,
bingo and lottery.
Operator Type: All licences are available
to private operators save for lottery,
which is reserved exclusively for the
monopoly provider, Camelot.
Status: Any operator that transacts
with, or advertises to, British residents
requires a l