6 10 October 2007

News:

The EU and French government have ordered France's national lottery and horse betting monopolies to drop their case against Swedish listed online operator Unibet, following the high-profile arrest of its CEO in Amsterdam.

World Online Gambling Law Report's sister publications, E-Commerce Law & Policy and Data Protection Law & Policy, are organising full day briefings to help the gambling industry understand the opportunities and challenges of developing web technologies.

The European Union and other trading partners have agreed to extend the US' 22 October deadline to negotiate a trade compensation package for restrictions on internet gambling, to 14 December.

Features:

A French judge's decision to issue a European warrant, resulting in the arrest of Unibet's CEO in Amsterdam on charges of money laundering, has back fired spectacularly on the Française des Jeux (FDJ) and the Paris Mutuel Urbain (PMU).

You should never believe all that you read, perhaps never truer than when applied to the press coverage in the weeks leading up to the publication of the Prevalence Study on 19 September. After months of speculation that had the problem gambling figure doubling, trebling and quadrupling, the study concluded that there are around 250,000 problem gamblers in the UK. Therefore the rate stayed the same as in 1999. In fact, in real terms the number has fallen from 300,000, which is remarkable considering that in the views of many academics, remote forms of gambling such as online betting and gaming, interactive, mobile and exchanges were expected to drive the figure dramatically upwards.

As part of the World Trade Organization's dispute resolution procedure, Antigua is seeking the suspension of its obligations to the US in respect of copyrights, trademarks, industrial designs and patents as compensation for the exclusion of Antigua-based companies from the US online gambling market. Martin Owens, a trade attorney, comments on whether actions such as this could force the US to revise its position on online gambling.

Internet gambling operator Bodog is still fighting claims to its www.bodog.com domain name, after it was transferred to 1st Technology following a patent suit that Bodog failed to answer. Deborah Peckham and Anthony Holtzman, of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart, Preston Gates Ellis LLP, analyse the case and the lessons that it provides for online gambling operators.

The Gambling Act 2005, which came into force in September this year, provides new advertising opportunities for both gambling operators and for parties looking to associate themselves with responsible gambling brands, for example football clubs. Paul Renney and Jona Weber, of Campbell Hooper, provide a practical guide to issues that all parties need to be aware of when entering into advertising agreements.

The evolution of the web and developments in online gambling have seen gambling and betting services being offered on social networking platforms, allowing individual gamblers to wager against one another. With the recent US crackdown on internet gambling, Joseph V. DeMarco, Esq, partner in DeVore & DeMarco LLP, speculates on the potential criminal liability of such platforms under the Federal Wire Wager Act.

Italy's internet betting points, Punti Di Commercializzazione, face onerous new regulations under a Decree that comes into force on 1 January, 2008. Francesco Portolano and Yan Pecoraro, of Portolano Colella Cavallo Studio Legale, argue that operators are waiting to determine the impact of the Decree before challenging it in court, despite the fact that the deadline for challenging the decree is at the end of October.