•
A series of important event have been happening at the end of the year in the EU-US gambling debate :
US has agreed with EU that it will pay a compensation rather than allow European online gaming companies into the American gambling sector.
This doesn’t solve the US problem with Antigua 
But US has also conceded to the EU to allow European companies access to the US postal market and warehouse sector instead.
EU gambling companies accuse US of infringing the WTO rules.
Washington said it never intended to allow foreign companies to offer online gambling and made a mistake by not explicitly saying so as part of the 1994 world trade deal.
“We have been left with no choice but to pursue all legal avenues available to challenge the U.S. Department of Justice for its discriminatory enforcement activities against European online gaming operators,” Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), said in a statement. So RGA has filed a formal complaint against the Department of Justice.
And on top of that Google, Microsoft, Yahoo settled with the Justice Department over claims they promoted illegal gambling by accepting ads from online betting operations.
What a world !
</2007>
•
Bwin has win a new case in the German courts, in a series of legal cases that have complicated the life of the german bookmaker and have caused significant ups and dows of its shares.
The new case decided last week by the German regional court in Saxony said that the operator can continue to provide services ” in the former Communist East Germany under a licence issued days before German reunification in 1990 . (…) The court ruled that this licence also covered arranging bets over the Internet, a decision which could undermine German plans to outlaw Internet gambling in new legislation planned to become effective next year. Bwin cheered the ruling.”
But the German court also said that the licence was not valid for Western lands of Germany, but bwin announced they will redirect the German citizens to the bwin’s international web site bwin.com — which operates under a license issued by the British Overseas territory of Gibraltar.
•
The suspension hearing on the appeal for the annulment of Decree No. 163/2007, which has changed the conditions of sale and collection of betting on the so-called marketing points, was accepted by the Tribunal in Roma
The appeal was submitted by the licensees of Microgame Spa and other 4 dealers: Pluralia, Replatz, PakundoBet and NorBet. “The Monopoly of State submitted a written statement which clearly betray the intentions of the decree: eliminating competition for operators who have invested on notice Bersani, told professor and lawyer Francis Cardarelli, who along with Fernando Petrivelli today the applicants. “For our part we have submitted data collection show that the decline visibly produced by decree, and we hope the suspension of a clear deterrent and therefore demolitore segment of the marketing.”
Read more »
•
This is the result of a TÃœV Rheinland and Hambach & Hambach law firm panel that met in Koln on 3 December to discuss about the initiatives of the drafters of a German States Treaty on gambling.
Online-casions.com covers the main subjects discussed :
Many past reports held that the State Treaty on Gambling violates constitutional and European law; for instance, EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is at present preparing proceedings against Germany based on the violation by the State Treaty of European law – even before the Treaty has come into effect.
Up to now, however, the legislator and the public conversation have neglected to involve technical experts in the debate. This is almost inconceivable, as a regulation which cannot be implemented in practice cannot be upheld from the legal point of view either, as Dr. Wulf Hambach stated.
This neglected technical discussion has now been addressed by an expert panel under the auspices of the TÃœV Rheinland. Rolf vom Stein (COO TÃœV Rheinland Secure iT GmbH) described the technical limits of Internet censorship, while Prof. Dr. Thomas Harmann-Wendels (managing director of the Institute for Banking Economy and Banking Law at the University of Cologne) provided information on the economic and technical obstacles connected with the interruption of payment streams (so-called financial blocking) which is an intention of the Treaty if it is signed.
Read more »