“We need to ensure that our sector’s views are taken into account by European decision makers”

As the voice of the gaming and amusement industry in Europe, what are the main activities of EUROMAT?
First and foremost we represent the interests of our members at EU level. We are a highly regulated, highly taxed industry and for that reason it’s essential that we have a strong and united industry association, with a strong and single voice, able to make the case for a more competitive business environment. 
Secondly, we educate stakeholders in our industry so that they have a better understanding of the value that our members bring to the European economy.  Collectively our sector is responsible for €21 billion in turnover, which is more than 60% of the overall privately-operated European gaming market. We’re also job creators, employing more than 250,000 EU citizens.
Finally, we support our members in their efforts to ensure that the gaming and amusement industry remains a responsible business community.

What are the main initiatives that EUROMAT promotes in order to achieve a fair tax and regulatory treatment?
In regulating and taxing the online sector, governments must simply refrain from discriminating against land-based companies. We see clear examples of unfair treatment in European Member States today; for example, in the Netherlands a new Online Gambling Bill is under discussion which would introduce a 20% tax rate for the online sector compared to 29% for land-based companies, and in Denmark a decision to introduce a tax of 20% for online operators compared to 40%-70% for the land-based sector is the subject of a legal challenge.

What is the position of the association with regards to the regulation of online gambling in the EU?
Let me say first that online or remote and offline or land-based are in fact two distribution channels, not two different industries: the games offered to citizens are exactly the same, only the way of accessing them is different.

Governments have a responsibility to ensure that online channels are fairly regulated. Consumers should be protected irrespective of the location of the provider of gaming services.  However, in doing this governments must not distort competition through regulation or fiscal measures that discriminate against the land-based sector.

The land-based gaming and entertainment sector is as innovative as the online sector. As I said before, most – if not all - the games offered online are replicas of land-based games. I’m an entrepreneur and so are our members, and if we want to succeed, we need to adapt to the changing needs of the market. However, unfair treatment obstructs our ability to innovate and distorts markets – an outcome that is in nobody’s interests.

What are the main goals you expect to achieve in the short term? And what are the main challenges?
For EUROMAT our immediate goal is to improve the business environment for our members by ensuring that their views are represented at the highest levels of government. With a new European Commission and Parliament in place this year, we need to increase our efforts to ensure that our sector’s views are understood and taken into account by European decision makers.

From a regulatory perspective, illegal online gambling is a major challenge for governments which is damaging the legal market, putting consumers at risk, and resulting in lost tax revenue.  Tackling it has to be done in cooperation with the industry, which is not necessarily the case at the moment. For example, the European Commission’s expert group on gambling, which was set up to improve cooperation between national regulators and increase pressure on Member States to enforce existing law, has not been transparent with meeting minutes produced months after meetings take place. These issues should not be discussed behind closed doors because the consequences for consumers as well as the industry are too important.

In addition, some national regulations designed to fight illegal, unregulated online gambling, are in fact damaging -more than helping- the land-based gaming channel, which represents more than 90% of total revenues, tax contributions and employment. Certainly online gambling is growing, but not as fast as forecasted, while the industry segment we represent needs to be better understood. We are not asking for privileges, just for fairness.