European Parliament votes on appropriate control of all gambling activities

EL again stresses its support for the specification brought by the European Parliament of the specific forms of due diligence that should apply: for forms of gambling beyond casinos and online gambling, the controls should apply on the winnings above a threshold of 2 000 euros. This specification rightly addresses the specific risk that can lie in the potential fraud with winnings and takes into consideration European customer social habits. 

EL President Friedrich Stickler: “The control on winnings for certain forms of gambling is already in place in a number of Member States and has proven to be adequate. The step taken by the European Parliament today will allow Member States to apply the Directive to its full potential”.

EL calls on the Council and the European Commission to now follow the lead of the European Parliament and also provide for this efficient and adapted way of extending the Directive to all forms of gambling. 

EL takes note of the fact that the European Parliament supports the possibility for Member States to exempt certain forms of gambling, following a risk assessment. However, EL considers that the provision whereby Member States need to seek the approval from the European Commission, goes beyond the necessary and sufficient guarantees of control of national implementations already provided in the Directive and undermines the subsidiarity principle as consistently referred to in the CJEU jurisprudence on gambling. EL therefore hopes this point will be clarified further in the dialogue between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on the Directive.