6 7 July 2007

News:

The European Commission's fight against restrictions on the provision of sports betting services could endanger Germany's draft Interstate Treaty on Lotteries, despite Charlie McCreevy assuring politicians in a letter that the state lottery market is not on his agenda.

World Online Gambling Law Report is organising its second E-Payments Intensive to address the key challenges posed by payments to operators.

The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) is aiming for a compromise with the UK Government over plans to restrict gambling advertising on television and radio.

Features:

Confirmation from the European Commission that it will continue to try and break up state gambling monopolies in sports betting has been welcomed by the industry as a positive sign of possible change.

Last week, the Washington State Gambling Commission ordered me to shut down Betcha.com, a U.S.-based betting exchange we launched in mid-June. Betcha is akin to a cross between eBay and Betfair, with one big vignette: losing bettors aren't required to pay when they lose. Winning bettors' recourse - negative feedback, a la eBay. The Commission says that's gambling.

Section 335 of the Gambling Act 2005 will provide businesses involved in gambling with the ability to enforce gambling credit contracts for the first time. Carl Rohsler, head of the gambling team at Hammonds, highlights the effects of this important feature of the new law.

The European Commission has recently asked France and Sweden to amend their national gambling laws and has requested information from Greece on its national legislation before deciding if further action should be taken. In this article, Brigitte Zammit, an associate at Mamo TCV Advocates, examines the proceedings and opines on their future development.

The recently established Alexander Gaming Commission has set out a regulatory framework to ensure order, fairness and high standards of conduct for gaming activities operated within and from the territory of the Alexander First Nation. In this article, Dr. Cheryl B. Giblon, of eNation Corporation, sets out the regulatory framework.

There are a number of games of chance or skill in virtual worlds in which prizes can be won, which can be sold to other players for a profit. Such games remain largely unregulated at present. Carl Rohsler, head of the gambling team at Hammonds, debates whether these games constitute gambling and if they have the potential of 'grooming' youngsters for more conventional forms of internet gambling.

The Division of Addiction at the Harvard Medical School recently published the results of a study, carried out during February 2005, of 40,499 subscribers to internet sports betting service bwin, in an attempt to identify addictive patterns of behaviour. Wolfgang Schwens, head of corporate social responsibility at bwin, outlines the study's findings.

Interactive social betting websites such as 'BetsGoWild.com', where users decide what to bet on and for how much using an internal points system, are potentially legal under US gambling legislation. Joel R. Dichter, of Dichter Law LLC, examines the issues surrounding these new websites.