In a scene that we’ve become used to in the US poker industry, a high European court has ruled that the Netherlands is legally allowed to stop online gambling operators from entering the company’s market if the government’s aim was to “combat fraud and crime.”
While the majority of European countries are slowly seeing the reality and viability of opening up their markets to competition in a bid to introduce a regulated and legalized system, the Netherlands (surprising, considering this country’s liberal outlook on many other issues) has stood steadfast in its decision to block with brute force any other operator except its own lottery operator, De Lotto.
Ladbrokes and Betfair online betting sites both brought separate cases to the European Union Court of Justice, claiming that the Netherlands’ policy counters the free trade charters signed between member states. Ladbrokes said that Holland’s policy was “hard to reconcile with its expansive gambling policy, which is characterized by the introduction and active advertising, marketing and promotion of new gaming products.”
Betfair called on the European Commission to take a lead on the issue of online poker and gambling on the continent “so that we can separate fact from fiction and settle the online gambling debate once and for all.”
The group also scoffed at the idea that online gambling was more detrimental than other forms of gambling, as claimed by the Dutch in their case, and said that these claims were simply “without foundation.”
The Secretary General of EGBA, Sigrid Ligne said that the internet raises new questions and challenges that are not possible to resolve through the judicial process.
She called on the Netherlands to examine its gambling policy once more and to introduce reforms that we have come to see in more enlightened countries such as France, Italy and Denmark.
