Slowly but surely - online gambling regulation in Europe

While Europe may be slowly moving towards some form of co-ordinated approach to player protection, pan European regulation of online gambling does not appear to be on the cards, at least in the foreseeable future... 

The European Commission (“the Commission”) is not known for speedy action, and its gradually evolving position in relation to online gambling is no exception.  In November 2012 we reported that the Commission had unveiled its Action Plan for online gambling in Europe containing a comprehensive set of initiatives over two years targeted at clarifying the regulation of online gambling and promoting co-operation between Member States.  At the time, it seemed that Europe was at a critical crossroad, but more than seven months later a number of infringement proceedings remain open and, at the time of writing, little progress is being made.  Harrie Temmink, Deputy Head of the Online and Postal Unit at DG Internal Market and Services at the Commission reportedly indicated, in April 2013, that the Commission wanted to issue simultaneous decisions on each country.

In December 2012 the Commission set up a group of experts on gambling to advise it in relation to policy objectives and the exchange of information between Member States.  Membership of this group is made up of regulators and government departments from Member States.  Click here to access the list of members and observers.  At the most recent meeting of the group, in February 2013, various player protection provisions were discussed and recommendation documents in relation to responsible gambling advertising and common protection of consumers were presented.  It does not appear that any consensus was reached at this meeting as to how the Commission should proceed on these issues: for example, some members favoured a more far reaching recommendation on player protection, whereas others felt it should have a narrower focus.

In February 2013 a draft report on online gambling in the internal market was published by MEP Ashley Fox, who represents the South West of England & Gibraltar constituency.  Fox’s report urges the Commission to take action regarding the regulation of online gambling.  He calls on the Commission to tackle those Member States which continue to infringe European law by maintaining monopolies put in place ostensibly to protect the public from the social harms of gambling, but without taking measures to limit participation in gambling which would be consistent with that policy objective.  The report also calls for more co-operation between Member States, notably in relation to the sharing of information by regulators, protecting players (including establishing a system allowing players to self-exclude across EU regulated sites), and creating common standards for gambling equipment and player identification.

In April 2013 a total of 425 amendments to the draft report, received from across Europe, were published.  A number of suggested amendments were to emphasise the entitlement that Member States have under European law to regulate gambling in accordance with their own values and policy objectives, as endorsed by recent case law from the Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”).  The challenge for the Commission is reconciling this fundamental freedom with the aim of coordinating the system for gambling regulation across Member States.  Ultimately, coordinated systems for player protection measures will serve to pursue the policy objectives of Member States, whether their preferred system is a state monopoly, regulating a limited number of operators or a more open market.

While Europe may be slowly moving towards some form of co-ordinated approach to player protection, pan European regulation of online gambling does not appear to be on the cards, at least in the foreseeable future.  In any event, Member States have not been passively waiting for a Europe wide system and one by one are pressing ahead with their own legislation to provide for the regulation of internet gambling.

An extended version of this article will be published in July’s edition of Casino Enterprise Management. Please contact Melanie Ellis for further details.

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