EUROMAT News Bulletin 5 October 2012

EU AFFAIRS

04/10/12 – The European Commission has responded to MEP Christofer Fjellner’s (Sweden, EPP) inquiry about the outcome of the “detailed opinions” issued by the Commission against the draft gambling laws notified by a number of Member States between the years 2009 and 2010. In its response, the Commission confirmed that the answers provided by Belgium and Romania were not satisfactory. The Commission continues the dialogue with the authorities of both Member States and will assess whether it is necessary to launch formal infringement proceedings in relation to the online gambling legal frameworks concerned. Furthermore, the Commission pointed out that it can in any case also decide to take any action if appropriate outside of the TRIS notification procedure.

03/10/12 – The European Commission has determined that following the amendments recently introduced by Greece, OPAP is now paying an adequate fee in exchange of the exclusive rights and Video Lottery Terminals (VLT) license it has and is consequently, not benefiting from state aid. OPAP has an exclusive right to operate 13 games of chance until 2030 and 35.000 VLTs until 2022.

02/10/12 – In light of the forthcoming European Commission Communication on online gambling, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has called for “the introduction of European rules to ensure proper protection for consumers and maintain a crime-free environment throughout the EU”. At the same time, the EGBA announced that it has launched a formal complaint with the European Commission against the new German Interstate Treaty on Gambling “on grounds of incompatibility with the EU Treaty”.

MEMBER STATE NEWS

02/10/12 - The Hungarian Parliament has this week adopted legislation which provides for a total ban of all gaming machines, having no regard for the devastating social and economic impact of its decision. The only exemptions to this legislation are those gaming machines that are located in casinos which are licenced by a state-owned monopoly. In an extremely aggressive and anti-competitive move, the Hungarian Government has completely blind-sided the industry, and has left it no time to react. EUROMAT is currently assessing together with its Hungarian member association, MSZSZ, the options to challenge this anti-competitive move not only before the Hungarian Constitutional Court, but also before the EU Institutions, the European Court of Justice and the Court of Human Rights.

02/10/12 – Following the recent announcement that the Hellenic Asset Development Fund has launched the tender process for the sale of the Greek Government’s 33% stake in OPAP, the Remote Gaming Association (RGA) stated that it will continue to challenge “the unfair treatment of private sector online gambling operators”. As an immediate step, the RGA has written to the Deutsche Bank and the National Bank of Greece to provide them information on the outstanding complaints to the European Commission and on the petition lodged in the Greek Council of State.