News
Four years later: Greek laws deemed non- compliant with EU law
It only took four years after a ‘reasoned opinion’, but the European Commission has eventually found the old Greek gambling law to be against EU law.
EUROPE T
he online gaming industry has been granted a somewhat pyrrhic victory after the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU Jàn Mazák declared the old Greek gambling legislation, which granted certain exclusive gambling rights to OPAP and allowed for an expansion of its offerings was ‘manifestly inconsis- tent’, was not necessary to attain the objectives stated, and therefore was not com- pliant with EU law.
The case, which involved legal challenges against the Greek government from Stanleybet, William Hill and Sportingbet, had been referred to the EU from the Greek Council of State, will now receive a full ruling from the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in the coming months. Disappointingly, the AG opinion comes over four years after the European Commission had expressed the same con- cerns but did nothing to enforce its decision. Greece has since passed new gambling laws. Maarten Haijer, director for regulatory affairs at European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), commented: “We welcome AG Mazák’s opinion confirming the strict EU law requirements a gambling monopoly needs to fulfil and why he considers that the Greek gambling monopoly OPAP fails to do so. Greece must use this opportunity to reg- ulate its online gambling market on a competitive and EU compliant basis, not just to provide cus- tomers a safe legal offer,
but also to secure much needed tax revenues. “It’s quite ironic that the CJEU is now going to rule in this case; over four years after the Commission had expressed the same con- cerns in a Reasoned Opinion but failed to press ahead with legal action through the Court. We are encouraged by Commis- sioner Barnier’s statement to reactivate all gambling infringements against countries continuing to flout EU law but we need to see urgent action; we can’t wait any longer whilst oper- ators’ legal rights continue to be compromised.” Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of the Remote Gambling Association, commented: “Although it is referring to the old legis- lation, we welcome the opinion of the Advocate General as it demonstrates once again that this regime was blatantly in breach of EU law. We hope that the CJEU will accept the Advo- cate General’s opinion and give the Greek Council of State an unequivocal answer to the questions it has asked. When that happens the Greek Council of State would seem to have little option other than to follow the lead set by Advocate General Mazák.
“In any event this opinion sends a clear signal not just to Greece, but to other Member States, that they have an obligation to ensure that their gambling laws are compliant. It is not something they should have to be forced to do, however, if necessary we would expect the CJEU and the European Commission
to compel them to fall into line. Commissioner Barnier’s statement earlier this year about enforce- ment was a public commit- ment to take action and we trust him to be as good as his word.”
The Greek legislation provided that the public authorities could grant a single operator, in the form of a public limited company, the right to organise and operate games of chance. It also allowed the public entity to advertise freely and expand its services, including into other countries. The legis- lation was supposedly designed to combat crimi- nality by exercising control over the single operator. However, the AG refuted the justifications given by the Greek government and found that OPAP’s expan- sion and the public promo- tion of its products went far beyond what is neces- sary in order to channel consumers towards the controlled provision of gambling services. The Advocate General further stated that OPAP is not subject to strict control of the public authorities and hence the Greek monopoly does not satisfy the require- ments of CJEU case law. Interestingly, the Greek Council of State has queried whether Member States could be granted a buffer zone in which to shift its laws to ones that were compliant with EU law. But Mazák gave this the short shrift, maintaining that fun- damental obligation for Member States to comply with EU law and held that Member States must do so without delay.
Sportingbet re
With William Hill and GVC Holdings circling, Sportingbet ANNUAL RESULTS
ast exceptional costs of £71.6m have taken the shine off an oth- erwise transitional financial year for online bookmaker Sportingbet, forcing it to post a loss for the year of £39.1m compared to a £24.4m profit in the preceding 12 months. Included in the exceptional costs were a £18.1m charge associated with the disposal of its Turkish language website, £16.8m related to the acquisition and integration of Centrebet, an £18.7m impairment charge for these deals with computer hardware and software and a late tax grab from the Spanish government totalling £14.7m. Away from the bad news the amounts wagered were up 14 per cent, with Sport- ingbet’s Australian business performing exceptionally, although a 9 per cent drop in core total revenue to £188.9m from £206.3m was reflected in a 15 per cent fall in adjusted operating profit to £32.2.
V
MAARTEN HAIJER: ‘WE NEED TO SEE URGENT ACTION; WE CAN’T WAIT ANY LONGER’
2 BettingBusinessInteractive • OCTOBER 2012
Group chief executive Andrew McIver said: “Sportingbet is a very different busi- ness to that of a year ago and is in a much stronger position. Our successful acquisi-
tion of Centrebet, which has out-performed our expectations, disposal of Turkey and introduction of regulation in our other key countries, has resulted in over 80 per cent of the group’s revenue now being derived from regulated and/or taxed countries. “The group has had a solid start to the new financial year in line with our expecta- tions. We are confident that the increased advertising opportunities, improved payment processing and stable business platform provided by our regulated market presence will drive profitable growth in the medium term. Whilst the economic outlook remains challenging, our robust position across a variety of attractive territories gives us confidence in the outlook for the current financial year.”
Betting on sports still accounts for 76 per cent of group gross gaming revenue, with football remaining top dog, accounting for 46 per cent of gross gaming revenue. However, the reshaping of the group has resulted in a better diversified revenue stream with 33 per cent coming from Aus- tralian horseracing.
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