European Online Gambling Developments

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This week there have been bits and pieces of online gambling news from different European countries.

Denmark had initiated a regulated online gambling regime earlier this year. Now the Danish Gambling Authority has prohibited unlicensed gaming operators from advertising in any form. Even dissemination of information about online gambling operations such as website address and contact details is banned. The ban applies to print, digital and television media formats. Sponsorships in any form are also covered under the definition of advertising. This advisory was posted on the regulator's website. Also mentioned in the advisory was that unlicensed operators who ignore the ban will face stiff fines.

There are unconfirmed reports from Ireland that the proposal to tax online gambling operators has been postponed to 2014. The reason given by Irish minister Paul Kehoe is that the lawmakers need to focus on more urgent issues connected with Ireland's economy and the Euro crisis and hence the delay. The government plans to publish its proposals early in 2013 in order to give sufficient time for a debate and consultative process. This will enable the required laws to be passed in the early part of 2014. Irish based online companies are glad for the windfall received.

The statistics released by the Italian online gambling regulator for April 2012 revealed that there was an 8% slow down compared to March 2012 indicating a weakening market. The numbers, however, were better than those in April 2011. Gross gaming revenue increased 16.4% year-on-year to €67.7 million. This will not cause any jubilation because the increase is only because of the online casino and poker sectors, which were not represented last year. Fixed odds sports betting was down 29.1% at €18.1 million compared to April 2011. Horse racing also registered a lower volume.

The news from Spain is that the online gambling licenses will be issued on June 1 as scheduled but there will be a small delay in the web sites bearing the.es domain suffix going live. The operations will commence on June 5. The delay is by mutual agreement between the regulator and the operator. In fact the request for a gap between the issue of licenses and the commencement of operations was made by the operators. The reason given was that the operators did not want to kick off on a weekend, when any teething hiccoughs may have been difficult to resolve. Good industry practices indicate that such technical projects should start on a weekday and in the early morning, because there will be better response from technical teams and user volume will be low. The best part is that Spanish players will not lose wagering continuity because the moratorium has been extended to accommodate the new operational date.

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