The past year has been an eventful one from an iGaming regulatory perspective. Europe’s regulated online gambling landscape has seen certain important changes with several jurisdictions opening their markets for international operations. What is more, other jurisdictions made small and not-so-small but all important steps towards regulation and re-regulation. Now, as the year is coming to an end, it is good to look back at the top regulations-oriented stories from all around Europe.
Portugal Opens Market
Portugal eventually opened its online gaming market for international operators this summer. The country is among those European jurisdictions that are believed to be holding great potential within the context of the industry.
Portugal adopted new gambling regulations in April 2015 and it was expected that the first licensed operators would go live there by the end of that year. Shortly after the changes in the country’s iGaming regulatory environment were formalized, companies operating in the local market’s gray zone were asked to leave with the promise that they would soon be able to apply for a license and to operate legally.
Licensure eventually began in May 2016 and French online gambling operator Betclic Everest Group became the first licensee to enter the newly regulated Portuguese market. The company was first given the green light to provide online sports betting options. It was later on granted an online casino license, as well.
Contrary to hopes and expectations, SRIJ has been taking its time in awarding licenses to interested iGaming operators. As of December, the regulator has granted five such licenses – two to Betclic, one to sports betting brand Bet, one to Estoril Sol Digital, Online Gaming Products and Services, S.A., and one to PokerStars.
Speaking of PokerStars, online poker turned out to be a bit of an issue in Portugal. Regulators had previously announced almost out of the blue that the country’s online poker market would be ring-fenced. That piece of news was not welcomed by local players and here it is good to mention that Portugal has long had a powerful and influential poker community.
Although licensed online poker was anticipated to become available much earlier, SRIJ has supposedly spent months in deliberations whether ring-fenced operations would indeed be the best for the market. Eventually, PokerStars was admitted to the local market and launched its .pt website in November, turning into an instant success.
Romania Welcomes Big iGaming Industry Names
The East European country was yet another to unlatch the door of its online gaming market, giving both local and international operators access to players. The country adopted a new regulatory framework, one strongly concerned with the legalization and regulation of iGaming operations, late in 2014.
Similarly to its Portuguese counterpart, the Romanian gambling regulator – Oficiul National pentru Jocuri de Noroc, has not commenced granting permanent licenses to interested parties before this spring. Unlike SRIJ, however, the regulatory body has not been slow in granting licenses. A number of operators and providers, including big industry names, have been issued the necessary documentation to operate in and supply products to the local market.
Dutch Lower House Votes on iGaming Bill
The Netherlands may well become Europe’s next regulated jurisdiction as lawmakers seem to be targeting a 2017 market regulation. A broadly discussed iGaming bill was voted on and passed in the Dutch Lower House in July. The proposed legislation, which will open the local market for licensed international operators, will now have to be greenlit by the Senate in order to become effective as a law.
Senate vote did not occur this year but hopes are that this would eventually happen in due time and manner in 2017. Initial versions of the iGaming bill first appeared on the country’s legislative horizon in 2014. Since then, the proposed legislation has undergone a number of important amendments related to online gambling licensure, regulation, taxation, and advertising. And it will probably face additional changes until its contents please lawmakers.
Generally speaking, the Dutch iGaming bill aims at channeling online gambling customers to regulated operations and restricting operators providing illegal services within the country’s borders. And it all shows that Dutch officials are willing to put a certain amount of efforts in bringing fruitful results as soon as possible.
Germany
Germany’s online gambling laws are quite fuzzy, to say the least. However, it seems that this fuzziness and lack of clear-cut regulatory framework may be corrected in very near future. In October, the heads of the sixteen German states announced that joint work has begun on amending the country’s Interstate Treaty on Gambling.
The gambling law was introduced in the early 2010s and states gradually started adopting it in 2012. The Treaty was deemed non-compliant with EU regulations and never took actual effect. The law’s most controversial provision presented a cap on the number of gambling operators to be allowed to operate in the local market to just 20. As announced by the sixteen state heads, this particular regulation will likely be scrapped and replaced with one that will require that interested gambling companies meet certain criteria in order to be awarded a German iGaming license.
It is believed that the amended gambling treaty will be ready to be discussed and voted on sometime in 2017, which means that it will probably not come into effect before early 2018.
Online Poker Shared Liquidity
Gambling regulators from France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the UK have agreed on certain technical standardization matters related to shared liquidity, thus laying the foundations for such agreements in near future.
France probably was the first jurisdiction to manifest greater interest in sharing liquidity on online poker with other European ring-fenced markets. Earlier this year, the country amended its iGaming law in a manner that allowed the local online gambling regulator – ARJEL – to discuss and possibly net shared liquidity agreements with its counterparts from other European jurisdictions.
Gambling authorities from the above countries have pointed out that they would try their best to negotiate agreements for mixing player pools by mid-2017. However, such a deadline may prove to be a bit too ambitious. Regulators have agreed on technical standards but the different taxation systems in all involved jurisdictions may seriously impede shared liquidity deals.
