ECA welcomes European Parliament’s report on online gambling

Ron Goudsmit, Chairman of the ECA, notes: “With this report, the European Parliament clearly emphasises the importance of respecting the Member States’ rights to determine their measures and economic model in accordance with their specific national values and cultural specificities”.

The ECA fully endorses the clear rejection of the mutual recognition principle in this sector. As Goudsmit explains, “with gambling being such a specific service, it is of the utmost importance that Member States have the discretion in establishing the social and health standards they consider necessary to ensure an appropriate level of protection to consumers who play on their own territory.”

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.

“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. Internet gambling is clearly more vulnerable to criminality and much more exposed to fraud. This has recently been underlined in many internet gambling fraud scandals.”

The ECA stands for responsible online gambling policies that are not purely economic-driven. Similar regulations and control systems that are in place for the land-based activities should also be applied to online activities.

This report was strongly awaited by the European Commission. The Commission will base its next steps on these Parliament results when going forward with the consultation it launched with the Green Paper of 24 March 2011.

The ECA also welcomed Internal Market European Commissioner Barnier’s suggestions made during the discussions held yesterday evening in the Parliament which included the encouragement of cooperation between national regulatory bodies, the endeavour of working towards minimum standards for consumer protection, the broadening of the scope of the third anti-money laundering directive, and the launch of further scientific research on addiction issues.

This Parliament report will surely encourage the Commission to seek further in-depth data on the online gambling sector. The EU will not be able to launch any initiative without having access to audited, neutral and independent data on the online gambling sector, which, as is emphasised in the European Parliament report, is currently so clearly lacking.