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EU Strikes at Germany's Online Gambling Ban
Message was posted: 03:17 Jan 31st, 2008

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Poker news source: CardPlayer Magazine - http://www.cardplayer.com EU Strikes at Germany's Online Gambling Ban BY: BRENDAN MURRAY PUBLISHED: Thursday Jan 31, 2008 10:15 AM Germany Is Trying to Protect Monopolies German authorities and the European Union are set to go head-to-head in the courts over the German Interstate Treaty which came into force on Jan. 1, 2008, and banned online gaming, including poker. German states hope the treaty, which works similarly to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in the U.S., will protect their monopolies on lotteries, horse racing, and other forms of gambling, while the EU is upset that its competition law is not being respected. One leading operator in the German lotteries market, Tipp24, said in the aftermath of the ban that it felt the ban was illegal and that it was prepared to take legal action to ensure it could continue to conduct its business. BWin, which is licensed in Gibraltar and also operates under a license issued by the former East German administration, also stated its intention to contest the ban claiming it is illegitimate in the face of the company's existing licenses. However, today the European Union’s internal market commissioner had started legal proceedings against the German ban. The commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, issued a letter of formal notice to German authorities — the first stage in legal proceedings . Formal objections had previously been raised by the European Commission under its notification procedure (Directive 98/34/EC) that the Treaty was counter to existing EU law, but now the Commission looks set to take the ruling all the way to the European Court of Justice if necessary in order to defend the freedom of movement of goods and services across internal borders within the EU. The swift move by the Commission was welcomed by the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), an industry body made up of eight major industry players, including PartyGaming and BWin. Secretary General of the EGBA Sigrid Ligné said, “By commencing these broad proceedings only 30 days after the Treaty entered into force, the Commission shows its determination to fight restrictions and in particular prohibitions, which are not backed by genuine consumer protection or public order interests. What happened in the U.S. proved that prohibition cannot be the answer. Trustworthy and highly transparent online gaming companies abandoned the U.S. market, thus paving the way for a grey market in which no guidelines whatsoever exist in terms of consumer protection, prevention of compulsive gaming, and protection of minors.”