Inside Asian Gaming

January 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 Regulation prohibited from offering their services to nationals but no enforcement action has so far been taken against offshore operators. France and Denmark currently prohibit the offering of gambling services by operators other than the State-owned/ controlled monopoly operators but both are currentlydebatingproposalstoopenuptheir national gambling market to competition (at least in part) from commercial operators. Both Member States are considering rules whichwill broadly replicate the Italianmodel i.e. there will be no recognition of licences offered in other EU Member States and the proposals include strict sanctions against those offering online gambling without a local licence. 3. Countries that prohibit the provision of gambling services Despite numerous investigations by the European Commission and legal challenges by gambling operators (for example Ladbrokes in the Netherlands and Stanley in Italy) the majority of EU Member States only permit the provision of gambling services by the national monopoly providers. For example, in Austria , Finland , Germany , Greece , Netherlands , Portugal and Sweden all gambling activities are primarily reserved for the state-owned and controlled monopoly operators. In order to ensure that national citizens cannot access the websites of remote operators, several of these countries have enacted legislation that requires Internet service providers to block citizens’ access to websites of ‘unlicensed’ operators. In addition, other countries (for example in the Netherlands) have created a blacklist of operators and requested that banks block financial transactions between nationals and these operators. In many cases these EU Member States have also enacted legislation to prohibit operators from advertising services to their nationals. The Dutch Ministry of Justice has recently requested that the Dutch football association reminds all football clubs that they are prohibited from promoting unlicensed gambling operators e.g. by carrying slogans on football kits. The big issue—ensuring compliance E ven once established and licensed withinanEUMemberStateitisimportant to note that operators cannot automatically provide services to citizens located in all other Member States. As described above, many Member States continue to use their discretion to prevent operators established outside of their territory from offering gambling services to national citizens. Licensed operators should ensure that they do not breach national laws by advertising or offering services to nationals in Member States where this is prohibited (or at the very least they should monitor how these rules are enforced in practice). In addition, to the three broad categories of regime outlined above there are a large number of countries where online gambling is not currently regulated at all (for example, Cyprus , Estonia , Ireland and Slovenia ). Where it is unclear whether online gambling provided from outside of the national territory is unlawful or where rules are not enforced in practice, operators often provide their services to nationals and advertise their services in these jurisdictions. However, this strategy raises clear commercial risks and compliance issues. By April Carr, Associate, Olswang Olswang is a full service European lawfirmspecialising in thegambling,mediaand technology sectors. April provides EU and UK competition and regulatory law advice for clients in a wide range of industries including the gambling, sport and broadcast sectors. april.carr@olswang.com The European Commission, Brussels