RGF starts GREaT integration
The planned merger between the UK’s Responsible Gambling Fund (RGF) and The GREaT Foundation (GREaT) is now underway with the RGF’s five trustees standing down to make way for three new ones from The GREaT Foundation - Gala Coral’s Neil
Goulden, Praesepe’s Nick Harding and Clive Hawkswood of the RGA. Goulden, the new RGF chair and chair of The GREaT Foun- dation, commented: “The advantages in the new integrated arrangements will quickly become clear and will ensure that even
more funding will go to those who are working to help problem gamblers and those at risk. The new trustees of RGF continue to support the work initiated by their predecessors and can confirm that all existing grants and contracts will be honoured.”
German states will wait for EU approval for Treaty
GERMANY T
he decision by 15 federal states to sign the new German State Treaty on Gaming has been criticised by the industry which claims it still contains ‘serious legal flaws’ and will not stand up to scrutiny under European legislation.
FOOTBALL SAW A 77 PER CENT INCREASE IN OTC GGY,
OVERTAKING GREYHOUND RACING
OTC TURNOVER IN UK LBOS Apr09 -
Event Mar10 (£m) Dogs
Football Horses
Numbers Others
Total ANALYSIS Apr10 -
1,404.40 1,356.86 956.17 1,025.87 5,435.20 5,149.66 854.00 834.47 619.18 530.34
9,268.94 8,897.20
are still at the preliminary assessment stage, 32 cases have been passed to the rel- evant sport’s governing body for investigation and there are 14 active investi- gations in which the Com- mission is involved.
What the statistics do highlight is the utter failure of the Gambling Act to attract the remote gambling industry to the UK shores – in fact the 10 per cent drop in remote gambling licences over the period emphasises the fact that it is actually driving operators away. The UK consumer remote indus- try is worth £1.9bn in GGY, but the UK’s Gambling Com- mission only regulates a quarter of that business. The Commission com- mented: “In the last two
Mar11(£m) % change -3% -5%
7% -2%
-14% -4%
years since 2008/9 Commis- sion regulated GGY (which includes both UK and over- seas consumer activity con- ducted in reliance on a Commission licence) has decreased by 19 per cent due to the relocation of signifi- cant UK brands overseas. The 5 per cent increase in the GGY of Commission reg- ulated operators in the last 12 months is primarily attributable to growth by existing operators rather than new entrants to the market. We expect the GGY from Commission licensed operators to decline in the future as the effect of Betfair moving offshore is seen in regulatory return data. Further relocations of oper- ators overseas cannot be ruled out.”
The charge that bookmakers are only opening more shops in order to operate gaming machines is exposed as
nonsense looking at the raw data from the Gambling Commission which reveals that the number of B2 gaming machines has stayed flat over the period. The average number of B2 machines
between April 2010 and March 2011 was 31,978, just 42 more than the previous 12 months. However, bookmakers are managing to
squeeze the pips of their gaming
machine allocation: gross gambling yield for the period was up 10 per cent to £1.3bn - providing 46 per cent of the total GGY for betting shops in the country.
The 16th Lander, Schleswig-Holstein, has refused to sign the state treaty and is pressing on with its own deregulation of the online gambling industry to the extent that it has already got its laws approved by the European Commission. However, the prime minis- ters of the other 15 states have agreed to put the State Treaty through regional par- liaments only if the new Treaty gets the green light from the EU Commission. The previous State Treaty on Gaming in 2010 was roundly criticised by the Commission and gambling operators believe the latest legislation is not much better. The latest Treaty features an almost unfeasible high tax rate of 5 percent on betting stakes, a limit of 20 licences, ‘unworkable limits’ on betting stakes and the inconsistent rules applied to various differ- ent types of gaming, extend- ing as far as a total ban on online casino and poker. German online operator
JAXX has been particularly vocal. “The regulation has not been thought through,” remarked Mathias Dahms, management board spokesman of JAXX SE. “It is a political compromise that is not fit for purpose and is grossly out of step with other European countries. We doubt whether these condi- tions will encourage a suffi- cient number of companies in Germany to apply for licences for the market to be regulated effectively. Most players will continue to operate from abroad, bol- stering the grey or black market. Only operators which have shops might survive amid the conditions proposed. We will have to await further develop- ments.”
JAXX has declared that its subsidiaries will operate from Schleswig-Holstein in 2012 and apply for all the nec- essary licences there. Dahms said: “We want to obtain licences in Germany and we want to pay taxes here. But the conditions have to stand up to comparison with other locations in Europe, otherwise they won’t work. The states will then have no scope for protecting licensees in Germany.” According to JAXX, a PricewaterhouseCoopers study has revealed that the main objective of the regula- tion - to combat the grey and black market - cannot be achieved through the provi- sions of the 15-state treaty. The PwC study, based on an analysis of the various fiscal regulatory approaches in Europe, concludes that only moderate taxa- tion of gross profit before additional costs is capable of bringing sports betting providers ‘back into the fold of legality’.
MATHIAS DAHMS: ‘WE WANT TO OBTAIN
LICENCES IN GERMANY’
BettingBusinessInteractive • JANUARY 2012 3
ACTION IMAGES / JOHN SIBLEY LIVEPIC
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