7 2 February 2008

News:

The Fédération Française du Tennis (FFT) is taking legal action against Bwin, Betfair and Ladbrokes in the Liège Court of First Instance, Belgium, for offering bets on the Roland Garros French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament, which takes place in Paris from 25 May to 8 June.

The European Commission has given Greece and the Netherlands two months from 28 February to 'amend their respective laws' regarding free movement of gambling services, which it considers incompatible with Article 49 of the EC Treaty (free movement of services).

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is expecting gambling operators to make up a shortfall in voluntary contributions to the Responsibility In Gambling Trust (RIGT) by the end of March this year, otherwise it will introduce a statutory levy for tackling problem gambling.

Features:

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham's warnings over the possibility of a statutory levy will come as no surprise to the industry, which received prior warning that this was the government's intention back in November last year, when the Gambling Commission's 'Review of Research, Education and Treatment' was launched.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has issued its proposed rule to implement the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which it was required to do when the Act was originally passed as part of an Act on port security in October 2006. Megan Gordon, Clay Porter and Sara Colb of Clifford Chance's New York and Washington D.C. offices, examine how the rule will affect non-US banks and the criminal risks associated with processing internet gambling payments.

A recent report commissioned by Finland's Ministry of Social Affairs and Health recommended allowing gamblers to claim back their losses as a method of protecting consumers from dangers associated with online gambling. Mikael Segercrantz and Oskari Rovamo, of Roschier Attorneys Ltd., discuss the various proposals for amending the legislative framework for gambling in Finland, including whether the current regime is compatible with EU law.

In December, the Australian High Court heard proceedings brought by Betfair against prohibitions contained in Western Australia's legislation directed against betting exchanges. Jamie Nettleton, a partner with Addisons Lawyers, explains the regulations, Betfair's challenge to their validity under the Australian Constitution, and the impact that the High Court ruling, within six months, is likely to have.

The Eastern Division of the Danish High Court has ruled that poker is a game of chance, and as such, is illegal to offer for substantial amounts of money under the Danish penal code. Henrik Norsk Hoffmann, an attorney with Danders & More, explains the Court's reasoning and examines the likelihood of a successful appeal to the Supreme Court.

Gaming and gambling are beginning to converge, as illustrated by the emergence of computer games where players are paid to kill other players or survive as long as possible. Professor Mark Griffiths of the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University, comments that as more gambling operators start to utilise gaming technology, the Gambling Commission may be forced to re-examine the exemption of such 'skill-based' games from Great Britain's Gambling Act 2005.

The difficulty of prosecuting offshore internet gambling operators has caused the United States to focus its legal campaign against online gambling on service providers with a presence in the US, including advertisers and payment companies. That strategy produced another notable achievement at the end of 2007, when the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced that Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! had settled charges that they received payment for advertising online gambling in the US over the past ten years. But the US is not alone in going after advertisers of internet gambling. On 1 January 2008, a new law took effect in the Canadian province of Ontario that bars advertising for internet gambling sites.

The Italian government notified the European Commission, on 28 December, of its draft decree which sets criteria that operators must meet in order to offer online gambling services in Italy. Valérie Peano, a senior associate with Studio Consulenza Societaria e Tributaria, examines the evolution of the draft decree which, in her opinion, could represent the first step towards a principle of mutual recognition of online gambling operators based in other EU Member States.