The latest gambling news from around Europe

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This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.

In this update, we report on some of the recent developments in the gambling sector across Europe. We report on activities in Greece, including the most recent stage in Stanleybet's legal challenge to OPAP's monopoly and the latest complaints filed with the European Commission over proposals to extend OPAP's monopoly into online as well as offline gaming. We provide an update on the progress of new gambling legislation in Sweden and on proposed criminal sanctions for unlicensed betting operators in Turkey. Finally, we provide details of the new gambling bill proposed in the Netherlands, which has sparked controversy due to its preferential tax treatment of online operators.

OPAP's Greek monopoly challenged once again

Greek monopoly gambling operator, OPAP, is under fire from the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) and European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), who filed a joint complaint with the European Commission on 28 May, expressing concerns over the current restrictions on Greece's online gambling sector. The complaint follows the repeal late last year of a series of temporary licences which had been granted to commercial operators to offer online betting and gaming in Greece.

Although online gambling is technically permitted under the current Greek Gambling Act, the government has been slow to grant full licences to operators, instead preferring to extend OPAP's monopoly into the online as well as offline sector. OPAP is still partly state-owned, despite the sale of the government's controlling stake to Greek-Czech investment fund Emma Delta in May this year.

As well as revoking all temporary licences at the end of last year, the Greek government also notified the European Commission of proposed regulations to prohibit all online operators other than OPAP, with associated enforcement measures such as IP-blocking and a blacklist of unlicensed operators. The regulations propose to grant OPAP a monopoly over online sports betting until 2020, and over other online gambling services (including poker and casino gaming) until 2030. The Commission is currently considering the legality of the proposals and is due to publish its decision soon.

In addition, OPAP faces a renewed legal challenge from British sports betting firm Stanleybet. Following on from a decision by the European Court of Justice last January which ruled that OPAP's monopoly on the Greek market violated EU competition law, Stanleybet is now seeking EUR 240 million in damages from the Greek government for loss of revenue following the government's rejection of their application for a Greek sports betting licence in 2004.

No change to Swedish gambling law until at least 2014

Recent statements from the Swedish government indicate that there will be no change to Swedish gambling law until at least the next parliamentary term, starting in September 2014. The Swedish Financial Markets Minister Peter Norman stated that whilst the government is still committed to its focus on addressing gambling and in particular gambling addiction, it has decided to delay new legislation until further research is conducted.

The government is currently taking advice from bodies such as the Swedish Gaming Board and has commissioned a study of comparable legislation in countries such as Denmark, Norway, Finland and Germany to assess the potential impact of any changes. The study is expected to last for at least two years, and the government will wait until publication of the findings before proposing new measures. The government has expressed concerns about gambling addiction and the widespread black market of unlicensed operators in Sweden, but is reluctant to change the current system until it has developed a clear direction for future policy.

At present, the state-owned Svenska Spel is the sole licensed gambling operator in the country, causing concerns that the proliferation of unlicensed, unregulated operators poses a danger to consumers. This was exacerbated by the ruling of the Swedish Supreme Court in Sjoberg and Gerdin on 21 December 2012, in which the Supreme Court cleared two newspaper editors of criminal charges for permitting the advertising of foreign gambling websites in violation of the current Swedish Lotteries Act of 1994 (the Appeal Court ruling was reported here). Whilst it is still technically illegal to promote unlicensed foreign lotteries in Sweden, the ruling effectively removed any sanctions for violating such laws.

Criminal sanctions proposed for unlicensed online betting in Turkey

New legislation has been proposed in Turkey to increase sanctions on unlicensed online sports betting. The bill was introduced to the Turkish parliament on 7 May 2013 and is backed by at least 62 members of President Erdogan's Justice and Development (AK) party. It proposes to impose fines of up to 500,000 lira (£180,000) on players caught on illegal betting websites, with unlicensed operators and middlemen such as payment processors or advertisers also being liable for fines and prison sentences. The maximum proposed prison sentence would be up to six years for the owners of unlicensed websites offering betting services in Turkey. Media organisations that published or broadcast related advertising would also risk criminal conviction. The bill would take effect mainly by way of amendment to the existing Turkish code for "Betting Activities related to Soccer and other Sports Matches" (Law No 7258).

Proposed gambling legislation sparks controversy in the Netherlands

New legislation has been proposed to introduce regulation of online gambling in the Netherlands. The bill seeks to regulate taxation of the online gambling sector and to discourage the use of unlicensed operators. However it would also introduce a variety of new player protection measures, including imposing a duty of care between online operators and their players.

One of the most controversial aspects of the bill is the 20% tax proposed for online operators, as this is considerably lower than the current 29% rate imposed on land-based operators. The discrepancy between the two regimes has raised comparison to the situation in Denmark, where a similar two-tiered system was challenged by Danish association Dansk Automat Brancheforening (DAB) in 2011, on the basis that it unfairly prejudiced land-based operators (see here).

In addition to taxation, the changes would seek to address addictive gambling. The new measures proposed include the creation of a central register of problem gamblers to which online operators would be obliged to refer at risk players. Licensed operators would also be required to donate 1.5% of gross gaming revenue to help combat addiction problems, and would have to set up website controls whereby players could set up voluntary limits to the amount of time or money they spent on gambling, and receive reminders if these were exceeded. The rules also seek to discourage the use of unlicensed operators by imposing a 29% rate tax on players themselves, levied on any profits made using unlicensed services.

The draft bill also proposes to liberalise the current Dutch regime surrounding betting by removing restrictions on all forms of betting (including sports betting, poker and roulette), other than for spread betting or novelty bets, which are still excluded. Whereas De Lotto is currently the only legal sports-betting operator in the Netherlands, the new rules would open the market to an unlimited number of new licensees, who would again be taxed at a rate of 20%. The development would particularly impact sports betting, given the popularity of sports in the Netherlands, and is expected to significantly boost advertising and sponsorship possibilities if passed.