Brussels, 26/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the conference on the regulation of online gambling at the European Parliament (EP) on Wednesday 27 June, at which Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier will reveal the broad thrust of the communication (accompanied by an action plan) he will bring forward in September, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) published a press release on 26 June, setting out its expectations in an exercise which began on 24 March 2011 with a Green Paper.
This will be the first time the commissioner has spoken publicly since his appearance at the EP last November at the vote on the own initiative report by Jurgen Creutzmann (ALDE, Germany). In its opinion, the EP called for a framework directive to harmonise rules on protecting gamblers through, for example, preventing problem gambling and addressing the issue of unlawful provision of gambling services, money laundering, and fraud in sports betting. MEPs also called for common standards of quality on national licences which, as the rapporteur said at the time, would be a significant step towards greater transparency, fair competition and legal security. He said, too, that, at the same time, the administrative burden on cross-border gambling services in the internal market could be lightened.
EGBA Secretary General Sigrid Ligné said online gambling and betting should be governed by European rules specific to this sector as, at the moment, there is nothing: online gambling and betting falls within the scope of a variety of rules, such as data protection, e-signatures and e-ID, and public concessions, but do not have their own specific rules. These rules would also achieve the double objective of providing gamblers with a high degree of protection throughout the EU and ensuring fair access to the 27 markets for operators holding licences, the EGBA said.
“Our end goal is of course a single licence or passport for online gambling, as exists in other sectors”, Ligné said, adding that “a practical start should be made now by the Commission proposing a harmonisation of targeted licensing requirements, common technical standards and reporting tools, and common consumer protection standards based on the workshop agreement published in 2011 by the European standardisation body CEN”.
The EGBA also pointed to the need for administrative cooperation between member states in order to build mutual trust. The current lack of structured communication has resulted in a “proliferation of rules, costly duplication of controls and requirements”, but also “loopholes and inconsistencies” in the way European consumers are protected. To ensure that administrative cooperation is carried out effectively, the EU must establish a legal obligation, and an agreed channel, for member states to give each other mutual assistance, the association said. (EH/transl/rt)