6 8 August 2007

News:

Jabu Mabuza, Chairman of the Casino Association of South Africa (CASA) has labelled the National Gambling Amendment Bill 2007 (NGAB), which would regulate interactive gambling in South Africa, as "inadequate", recommending that it "should go back to the drawing board for improvement".

Barclays will host World Online Gambling Law Report's full-day e-Payments Intensive: Key Issues in Remote Gambling ePayments at their global headquarters in Canary Wharf, London, on 21 September.

An increase in problem gambling in Britain has been described as 'unacceptable' by a UK government minister ahead of an industry regulator report into the prevalence of gambling.

Features:

South Africa, a country of 40 million people and one of Africa's most developed, is keen to regulate internet gambling, presumably in time for football's World Cup in 2010.

The gambling industry, in consultation with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and other relevant parties, has recently published a voluntary Code of Practice which sets industry advertising standards that operators are expected to meet in order to encourage socially responsible gambling. In this article, Nick Nocton and James Scicluna, of Jeffrey Green Russell Solicitors, examine the key provisions of the Code, which is designed to supplement the existing CAP and BCAP Codes.

Poker has grown to be the most popular game in Denmark, with up to 500,000 Danes playing on a regular basis. In this article, Henrik Norsk Hoffman, an attorney at Danders & More in Copenhagen, highlights a recent district court decision where he successfully argued that the classification of poker is not a game of chance pursuant to the Danish penal code, and explains the government's efforts to facilitate internet poker via the national operator, Danske Spil.

A ruling from the Civil Court of Pisa in the 'Puntocasino' case represents the first time that an Italian court has acknowledged that the Italian gaming authority's decree, requiring internet service providers to block access to Italians seeking to visit online gambling sites, is in conflict with EU law. Quirino Mancini, a partner with Sinisi Ceschini Mancini in Rome, explains the court's reasoning and discusses the possible impact it could have if similar cases reach the Italian courts.

The regulation of online gambling at state level has recently been proposed by two political parties in Spain. Meanwhile, some of Spain's autonomous communities are proceeding with their own regulations. The European Commission has also referred Spain to the European Court of Justice over its rules on the taxation of lotteries. Santiago Asensi, a partner with Asensi Abogados, explains how care needs to be taken in drafting regulations that do not create a conflict between the state and the autonomous communities, or with the EC.

The French government has announced that it is considering opening up the French market for horse race betting in a final bid to appease the European Union, which has been pursuing infringement proceedings arguing that France's laws restrict the free movement of services. Mark Miller, a solicitor and Avocat with Hammonds Hausmann, examines France's current restrictions on sports betting and advertising of sports betting, the reasons for the sudden shift in legal argumentation and possibilities for future regulation.

The Gambling Act 2005, which comes into force on 1 September 2007, only applies to Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), excluding Northern Ireland. This exclusion is providing companies who wish to run UK-wide campaigns with a nasty headache. James Pond, an Associate with Osborne Clarke, highlights the impact of this issue on online gambling operators.

It has been an odd few months for the French. First the French authorities sought to interview some of the leading executives of gambling operators, amid dark mutterings of further arrests. Then one of the teams in the Tour de France was banned on the basis of its sponsorship by Unibet. Widespread criticism followed, particularly because the tour's main sponsors included Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) and Française des Jeux, two French gambling companies with connections to the state. During the furore, PMU announced that it would not advertise itself during the London stage of the Tour, a move which rather missed the point - a market doesn't become free because a monopolist volunteers to put itself under the same restriction that it would like others to obey in its own country.