Egaming hub Malta has lodged a detailed opinion with the European Commission against Greek sanctions aimed at preventing operators from targeting its online gaming market without a local licence.
The European Commission, which also issued comments on the plans, yesterday extended the standstill period set aside for its review of the measures by a further month.
EU rules stipulate that the issue of a detailed opinion means the proposed regulations should not be made for a minimum of six months after they were first notified, in this case until June 2013.
However, the EU Member State had already failed to notify the measures to the EC at the time of their scheduled implementation at the local level on 6 December, forcing the departure from the market ahead of this date by London-listed Betfair and William Hill.
Greece only notified the plans to the EC later that month under pressure from EC officials.
Lobby group the Remote Gambling Association submitted a complaint to the EC in January over the enforcement measures, clearly designed to block private operators from the market and shield the part Greek state-owned OPAP monopoly from competition.
The sanctions include the compilation of a blacklist of websites offering online games of chance without the requisite licence, with Greek ISPs required to block these or be hit with fines of €50,000 per day for each operator, with this doubling after seven days. Operators targeting Greek consumers without a local licence face potential fines per day of €20,000 for each type of game and €10,000 for advertising, again doubling after seven days, with direct marketing communications costing €200,000 per infringement. Greek players also face daily fines of €1,000 a session.
Malta also issued a detailed opinion earlier this month against UK government plans to regulate on gambling in Britain on a point-of-consumption basis. The island is a licensing and business hub for operators active in dot.com online gambling markets, meaning any proposals which seek to restrict operators’ freedom to trade and establishment rights enshrined in Articles 56 and 49 of the EU Treaty could adversely affect its economy.
Yesterday also saw Greece notifiy the European Commission of proposed amendments to its gambling law that will restrict online betting and most other online gambling games to land-based monopoly OPAP until 2020. In January, OPAP’s monopoly was ruled to be illegal as currently operated by Europe’s highest court, the CJEU.
Article written by Peter Holmes
