ECA welcomes European Parliament adoption of its online gambling report

2011-10-13

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(Belgium).- The European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection adopted its report on online gambling. The report covers many policy considerations that need to be addressed in this sector, including the need for control and supervision of gambling activities, limitation of the market, player protection, the fight against addiction, and measures to enable gambling to be conducted properly, fairly and transparently.

The ECA welcomes the emphasis on the special nature of gambling, the importance of respecting the Member States’ rights to determine their measures and economic model in accordance with their scale of values and cultural specificities. The ECA also fully approves and encourages the request to improve the cooperation between Member States, especially in areas such as consumer protection and the prevention of money laundering.

Ron Goudsmit, Chairman of the ECA, notes: “With this report, the European Parliament clearly reiterates the discretion that the Member States have in determining the social and health standards they consider necessary to establish an appropriate level of protection to consumers who play in their country and ensure the prevention of crime and fraud. The ECA fully agrees that the growing number of illegal activities which take place outside the control of national governments require an enhanced, coordinated and cooperative approach between the Member States.”

The ECA also fully endorses the clear rejection of mutual recognition in this sector, as it is crucial that Member States can ensure the same level of protection to consumers that they afford them in their own territory.

“Legal licenses granted to highly regulated land-based casinos should not be undermined by internet operators who have been operating illegally over the years,” stated Goudsmit, adding that “online gambling presents additional, different risks due to the lack of direct contact between the consumer and the operator, and the high level of addiction linked to the omnipresence of the games on the internet”.

This report will have a clear impact on the European Commission’s next steps, following the Green Paper it issued on 24 March 2011, and the broad consultation this paper has opened.

It is to be hoped that this report will encourage the Commission to reach out to further in depth data on the online gambling sector. The EU will not be able to launch any initiative without having access to proper, neutral and independent data on the online gambling sector, which, as is emphasised in the European Parliament report, is currently so clearly lacking.

The European Parliament vote is scheduled to take place in the Plenary of November 2011.