European Court Of Justice rules that countries have the right to impose national prohibitions as long as penalties are not discriminatory.
Wednesday 14th July 2010
In a setback to the online gaming industry, Europe's top court has seemingly backed state-run monopolies in ruling that countries do have the right to impose national bans as long as any penalties are not discriminatory.
According to a report from the Reuters news agency, the European Court Of Justice ruled late last week in a case initially brought by Swedish authorities against the chief editors of newspapers Expressen and Aftonbladet, which had run online gambling adverts for a number of foreign bookmakers in 2004.
Officials prosecuted two men, one from each publication, and found them guilty of breaching the nation’s lottery laws before levying a criminal penalty of $6,600 each. The pair subsequently appealed against the verdict leaving Sweden’s Court Of Appeals to seek advice from the European Court Of Justice.
“Swedish legislation that prohibits the promotion of gambling organised on the Internet by private operators in other member states for profit is consistent with Community law,” read the ruling from the European Court Of Justice.
The European Court Of Justice decided that national bans could be acceptable on cultural, moral or religious grounds in a similar manner to the way it upheld a Dutch prohibition last month for reasons of combating fraud.
However, the ruling found that current Swedish rules that impose criminal sanctions for advertising gambling organised abroad but only administrative penalties for promoting gambling organised in the country without a licence should be changed.
“Community law precludes national legislation that penalises the promotion of gambling organised in Sweden without a licence differently from that of gambling organised outside Sweden,” read the European Court Of Justice’s ruling.
The European Gaming And Betting Association (EGBA), a lobby with members including PartyGaming and Bwin, responded to the decision by stating that legal rulings would not resolve the matter and urged nations to recognise the growing popularity of online gambling.
“It is up to the legislator to embrace the reality of online gaming and betting in Europe,” said Sigrid Ligne, Secretary General for the EGBA.
“Italy, France and the UK have introduced online gaming legislation and Denmark is set to follow suit in 2011.”
