Ladbrokes withdraws from Russia, Finland, Romania and Portugal

2014 was a year of withdrawals for Ladbrokes, in which the bookmaker stoped its operations in a large number of countries. Just in October, Ladbrokes pulled out of Canada, Norway, Switzerland and Hungary.

Russian Ruble Crisis

The withdrawals have all had to do with hardships related to regulation in each respective country, although the current Ladbrokes retreat from Russia could also very possibly be tied to the state of the Russian ruble and the backlash on the economy. The last two weeks saw the Russian currency take extended losses with economists predicting a recession for 2015 and further.

New legislation in Romania and Portugal

Ladbrokes seems to have ceased its operations in countries which are going through different levels of online gambling legislation. The withdrawal from Romania could be due to the Romanian government's new online gaming laws which passed recently, raising the licensing fee for online casinos from RON 400,000 to 448,000 (€100,000 per year).

Portugal's new online gambling laws which are set to come into effect next year threaten to impose high operating costs, something which could have affected the bookmaker's decision.

Finland's gambling monopolies

As for Finland's case, Ladbrokes has a long and problematic history with the Finnish government on the bookmaker's operation in the country. The domestic gambling activity in the country is controlled by a number of strong monopolies, despite the European Commission decrees about Finland's Lottery Act clashing with EU guidelines.