Regulations 2017 became effective on 25 April, 2017, requiring all gambling operators( including companies based overseas) which offer bets on horseracing in Great Britain to pay a 10 % levy on the profit on those bets where that profit exceeds £ 500,000 a year.
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 a continued delay to the implementation of the legislation led to the EC sending a letter of enquiry to the Greek authorities at the beginning of 2017 to question the lack of development in the remote gambling sector.
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 which 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 delivered its ruling in such a case, which concerned two ISP blocking orders against one operator’ s websites. The ruling determined Hungary’ s gambling regime to be incompatible with Article 56 TFEU, and that Hungarian authorities cannot impose sanctions on operators where the national gambling law infringes EU law.
IRELAND
Regulated Gambling Products: Online gaming is not specifically accounted for in Ireland’ s outdated legislation and as such is currently unregulated. Online betting has been regulated since August 2015. Status: Ireland is currently updating its legislation, which will create a comprehensive igaming regime and payment restrictions. More substantive developments are expected in 2017. The Betting( Amendment) Act 2015 now requires remote bookmakers to hold a licence and pay a 1 % turnover-based duty.
ITALY
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery. Operator Type: Fully regulated market. The Stability Law 2016, passed in December 2015, introduces various measures affecting the remote gambling industry, including tax changes and tighter advertising rules. The law also provides for the award of 120 new online gaming licences( lasting for six years), although 40 of those will likely be issued to existing licensees whose licences expired last year. The tender process for the award of the licences has been delayed since mid-2016; however, there is speculation that the process will launch imminently.
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( save for lottery products). Status: Following an announcement by the Malta Gaming Authority in 2015 that it was to modernise its online gambling rules, Malta has recently published a white paper proposing widespread reforms to its regulatory framework on gambling. The white paper seeks to replace the licensing system with two types of licence only( B2B
and B2C). The consultation on the white paper closed on 23 August.
NETHERLANDS
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports betting, horse race betting, poker, casino, bingo and lottery. Operator Type: Monopoly for all products. Status: The Dutch Lower House approved the Online Gambling Bill in mid-2016, which will introduce an online gambling licensing regime in the Netherlands. The legislation will impose a 29 % GGR tax on both online and land-based operators. The bill still requires approval from the Senate and licensing is not expected to commence until at least 2019. 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 who are“ specifically and unequivocally” targeting the Dutch market. The regulator has published a list of factors that it considers to indicate‘ targeting’, but expressly states that the list is non-exhaustive.
NORWAY
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports betting, horse race betting and lottery. Operator Type: Online gambling is reserved for its 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. The government published in March 2017 a long-awaited white paper on how best to regulate the gambling sector, which proposed that the gambling monopoly remain in place and no licensing system be introduced. The Norwegian regulator continues to step up enforcement efforts against unregulated operators, local banks and payment service providers.
POLAND
Regulated Gambling Products: Sports betting, horse race betting, casino and poker. Operator Type: Betting licences are available for companies with a representative in Poland. Casino and poker are reserved for a state monopoly.
82 iGB Affiliate Issue 65 OCT / NOV 2017