We are one month into 2017 and the year has so far proved to be an eventful one in terms of regulatory updates. More EU member states opened their markets for regulated operations, others took determined steps toward regulation; Portugal submitted technical standards for sharing liquidity on online poker with other ring-fenced markets; and Gibraltar saw certain development in its long-standing Point of Consumption tax case against HM Revenue and Customs, although an unfavorable one. Here is a quick round-up of the top regulatory stories to have made our headlines over the past month.
Portugal Sets Shared Liquidity Technical Standards
Portugal opened its online gambling market for international operators last summer. The local regulator – SRIJ – has issued five licenses for online casino, poker, and sports betting options since then. PokerStars became the first online poker operator to enter the local market and is currently the only such operator there.
Interest in online poker turned out to be very big as the online poker room has maintained more than excellent traffic numbers since its Portuguese launch.
Late last year, Portugal and several other European regulated jurisdictions announced that first important steps have been made towards the establishment of shared liquidity agreements. Thus, players from Portugal, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK will be able to play against opponents from any of the other above-listed countries as long as the necessary agreements have been reached.
During the first days of 2017, Portugal submitted to the European Commission Projeto de Regulamento que define os Requisitos Técnicos do Sistema Técnico do Jogo Online, a regulatory paper that contained information about the technical requirements that will need to be met in order for shared liquidity partnerships to be established.
The EC will now review the submitted piece. Being considered by the Commission means that it has been put to a standstill and cannot be adopted in Portugal for a period of three months. In other words, first shared liquidity agreements cannot come into effect before early April.
Switzerland Considers IP-Blockage Proposal … and Rejects It
Switzerland is expected to introduce a new iGaming regulatory framework around 2019. However, local casino operators called for measures to be taken for foreign gambling companies to be prevented from accepting local players until then.
It was suggested that such international companies have their IPs blocked. Swiss telecoms responded to the domestic operators’ request by saying that they would refuse to implement the IP-blockage if not being paid to do so. In other words, Swiss gambling operators would have been required to cover the extra costs that would have arisen from the blockage. What is more, telecoms informed that they would lift the blockage, if that impaired the overall network service quality.
As mentioned above, Switzerland is yet to liberalize its iGaming market and open it officially to international operators. Their operations in the country are currently neither legal, nor explicitly illegal. However, local casino companies have been complaining that they are losing much needed revenue to such unregulated websites, hence their request for the IP blocking. The proposal was eventually voted down by the Swiss Parliament.
Croatia Welcomes First Online Poker Website
Croatia’s first licensed online poker room went live earlier this month. SuperSport was expected to launch its poker website in the summer of 2016 but decided to wait for a little longer so as to be able to use its license for a full year.
Under the Eastern European country’s iGaming regulations, interested operators should pay a licensing fee of almost €600,000 for a license that is valid until December 31 of each year, no matter when they have applied for it.
Operators also need to have land-based operations in the country in order to be considered eligible for an online license. SuperSport has been operating brick-and-mortar facilities around Croatia for more than a decade now.
EU Advocate General Deems Gibraltar and UK Single EU Member
Maciej Szpunar, Advocate General at the EU Court of Justice, has said that Gibraltar and the UK should be treated as a single member state of the European Union.
The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA) and UK’s HM Revenue and Customs have been locked in a legal battle for two and a half years now. The Point of Consumption tax, imposed to UK-facing operators in late 2014, became the bone of contention between the two regulatory agencies.
According to the GBGA, the contentious tax regulation ran afoul of Article 56 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union. The gambling regulator argued that the new regulations adopted by the UK violated the British Overseas Territory’s right to freely move goods and services across the EU.
The Court of Justice is now to hear the case. Although it is not required to follow its Advocate Generals’ recommendations, it usually does so. In other words, it may not be a big surprise if it rules that Gibraltar and the UK should be viewed as a single EU member and thus be left to solve their tax dispute internally.
Czech Regulators Fail against Unlicensed Operators
New iGaming regulations became effective in the Czech Republic as from January 1, 2017. However, the local branch of an international NGO has informed media that regulators have failed to block a number of unlicensed gambling operators from accepting Czech players.
According to Transparency International, around 25 unauthorized websites have continued operating in the country even after the market was regulated to strictly prohibit such operations. The Unibet and Lottoland brands were named as the biggest violators.
Transparency International has said that it would review the local market in three months to see whether the government and the relevant regulatory bodies have addressed the issue.
Head of Sweden’s Gambling Regulator Leaves Post
It was announced last week that Hakan Hallstedt, who has been at the Swedish Gambling Authority’s (Lotteriinspektionen) helm for more than eight years, would resign from his post at the end of the quarter to assume a new post at the Blekinge District Court.
The provision of gambling options in the country falls under the purview of the state-run monopoly. International iGaming operators have been calling for the liberalization of the market for years now. Urged by the EU to implement a regulatory framework that matches ones in other member states, Sweden has commenced a review of its gambling industry. Mr. Hallstedt’s departure has sparked worries that the review and the much-anticipated market re-regulation may be stalled in favor of the monopoly system.
