The European Parliament today adopted a resolution on igaming that effectively upholds the rights of Member States to close off their gambling markets to licensed private sector igaming operators.
Online Gambling in the Internal Market also calls for restrictions on certain sports-betting products, including for: “Member States and gambling operators to ban all forms of live sports betting since these have proved to be very vulnerable to match fixing and therefore pose a risk to the integrity of sport.”
Following the passage of the resolution in the European Parliament by 572 votes in favour to 79 against, lobby group the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) said the call for such restrictions on products including in-play was “unjustified”, adding there was no evidence that licensed operators offering these products presented any discernable match-fixing risks.
The resolution was based on a report by Gibraltar MEP Ashley Fox prepared in the wake of last October’s EU action plan on online gambling. Fox’s proposals for the EU-wide licensing of operators were however heavily amended in June by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee to reassert the authority of national gambling regulators, with the following motion from Finnish MEP Sirpa Pietikäinen included:
“Member States should retain the right to impose restrictions they deem necessary and justified to address illegal online gambling in order to implement national legislation and exclude illegal providers from market access.”
The RGA argued today that the resolution had been “unduly influenced” by IMCO committee members who had put forward “flawed consumer protection arguments to justify the retention of barriers to market entry.”
The RGA also took issue with the implication within the resolution that “the licensed betting industry presents the threat” to the integrity of sports, highlighting that the sector worked closely with sports governing bodies to protect against this. More positively for the pan-European igaming industry, the resolution did however recognise that most cases of betting-related match fixing occurred in unregulated markets outside of Europe.
The RGA also slammed the Parliament’s support of “legally dubious” sports betting rights, arguing this was a commercial rather than a regulatory issue.
The main positive for pan-European igaming operators was that the resolution called on the Commission to enforce EU law and pursue infringement proceedings against non-compliant Member States. The RGA also welcomed the resolution’s promotion of cooperation between national gambling regulators, the benefits of more transparent licensing procedures, and avoidance of unnecessary admin burdens.
John Whittaker, CEO of Liverpool-based Stanleybet which has arguably spearheaded operators’ legal battle against sports betting restrictions across the EU, however noted the Commission was still “bending to the political will of Member States by failing to enforce EU law.”
