Brussels, 13/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, the European Lotteries Association AELTE welcomes the recent decisions by Dutch, Norwegian and Maltese courts that national regulations for slot machines (concerning exclusive rights) is compatible with EU legislation. AELTE says the current model of exclusive rights provides the best guarantees for a restricted gambling policy and better market control. It argues that the current EU draft directive on services in the single market would lead to dangerous deregulation of gambling in Europe. AELTE is calling on the European Parliament and Council to rule out gambling from the scope of the services directive.
The Remote Gambling Association and the European Betting Association, however, are both calling on members of the European Parliament's Internal Market Committee (due to vote on the issue early next month) to reject all amendments excluding gambling from the services directive. IN a press release, they argue that the directive is the best and perhaps the only way of dealing with consumer protection at EU level, and would help combat the rapid growth of illegal gambling while avoiding the transfer of European operators off-shore. It notes that excluding gambling is a contradiction of existing EU legislation both in terms of the Treaty and in terms of European Court of Justice case law. In the judgement on the Gambelli case (C243/01) of 2003, the Court of Justice ruled that a Member State cannot impose restrictions on the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services over and above what is necessary to achieve the objectives of protecting consumers and ensuring order in society. In the Gambelli case, the Court said Italy could not raise public order issues to justify restrictions since it was pursuing a policy of expanding betting and gambling to raise money while protecting state lottery outlets.
Unveiled in January 2004, the draft services directive does not force Member States to abolish monopolies in betting and gambling, but includes gambling and betting in the scope of application of the directive without applying the principle of country of origin to them. The gambling industry is, in effect, excluded from the country of origin rule as a transition measure, but no deadlines have been sent. The exemption will cease to apply once a harmonisation instrument comes into application. The Commission has commissioned a comparative study on national legislation on gambling, the results of which will be available at the end of the year (see EUROPE 9020).
On behalf of sports federations in 42 countries, the European Non-governmental Sports Association (ENGSO) supports the idea of excluding gambling from the services directive, warning against a huge drop in funding from national lotteries funding amateur sports activities. ENGSO points out that in 2004, such lotteries (using raffle tickets, etc) raised on average half the national funding of amateur sport in Europe, the highest level being raised in Finland, 98% of total amateur sports funding.