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Recent European Court judgments and the Commission's approval of 'local' licensing regimes mean that gambling operators established within the EU can no longer comfortably rely on the so-called EU defence. There are certainly still advantages to being licensed in a Member State but more jurisdictions within the EU are proposing a local licensing option in relation to certain online gambling products (in this update we report on proposals in Belgium, Cyprus and Greece). Member States introducing these types of systems are also considering means, such as ISP blocking, to prevent citizens residing within their territory from accessing unlicensed operators. We also report about how French authorities have already begun to exercise their powers by investigating unlicensed operators. Meanwhile authorities outside of the EU seem to be following the lead of Member States by seeking means to stop citizens from accessing online gambling websites.
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On 10 January 2010 the Belgian government adopted a new Gambling Act. Even though the new Gambling Act is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2011, it has caused a lot of controversy and is now the subject of a complaint to the European Commission.
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HMRC would appear to have a mandate to challenge the taxable status of certain offshore gambling operations where they suspect that those operations are, for general betting duty purposes, based in (or partly in) the UK. We are aware of a number of operators who are currently subject to such HMRC challenges.
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We have written many times over the last few years about the Horserace Betting Levy and the sale of the Tote but to avoid trawling our archive we have set out a brief summary of the key events in the long-running sagas which have afflicted both.
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On 16 July 2010 National Lottery operator Camelot's proposals to allow customers to pay household bills, top-up mobile phones and other similar services through its National Lottery terminals were provisionally rejected by the National Lottery Commission (the "NLC") because it considered there to be a significant risk of the proposal breaching EU/competition law.
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John Penrose, the minister with responsibility for gambling, has asked the gambling industry to make suggestions as to how gambling regulation might be reduced in a way that does not compromise integrity or result in extra costs.
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June was an eventful month for the gambling sector in Australia with the release of the Productivity Commission Final Report on Gambling (the "Report") and the handing down of judgment in the cases of Betfair v Racing New South Wales & Another and Sportsbet v State of New South Wales and Ors.
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In May 2010 the Gambling Commission published a guidance note setting out how it determines whether a particular prize machine is a gaming machine. This guidance was subsequently amended in July to reflect the HMRC skills with prizes machines and taxation review. Although the interpretation of the Gambling Act 2005 is ultimately a matter for the courts, the guidance note should be a helpful steer for manufacturers and suppliers of prize machines and those who make prize machines available for use, such as publicans, in determining whether they may require a licence from the Commission.
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In this article we describe the outcome of two recent adjudications into adverts by Paddy Power and Bet365.
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As might be expected it has been a quiet quarter in terms of DCMS and Gambling Commission publications and consultations as the new government takes shape and assesses its priorities. Nevertheless, below we set out two pieces of news which have been announced recently.
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