The UK Gambling Commission, a UK body sponsored by the Department for Culture Media and Sport and established under the Gambling Act in 2005 that is unded by betting licensing fees, has the responsibility of regulating betting and remote gaming for the UK.
The Commission has adopted on 28 December 2007 a Guidance document for online and offline casions on how they shoudl comply with the new UK regulation – Anti-Money Laundering Regulations (AML), which come into effect on 15 December 2007, and the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
This document is a must read for casinos – not only for the ones in UK - The Prevention of Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. Guidance for remote and non-remote casinos. Guidance to remote and non-remote casinos concerning their responsibilities under the Money Laundering Regulations, which came into effect on 15 December 2007, and the Proceeds of Crime Act.
The document also received seven answers during the period of public consultation, that are also available online.
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>
advice. I played thousands of
hands. I looked at all of the Online Poker strategy sites. I downloaded all of the
statistics software. Still, I never could quite get to the point where I could consistently beat the online Hold’em competition. What do I need to do? Visit this online
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.”
Continue Reading »
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.
Continue Reading »
The House of Representatives in Cyprus decided to lower the betting tax from 25% on all football bets and 10% on horse racing to a flat 10% rate on the net income.ÂÂ
The suggestion came from the Ministry of Finance that was worried on the rising of the illeagal betting systems available in the country.
As I found reading the Net Bet Blog, a Bulgarian newspaper, Trud, reports on some changes in the gambling regulatory framework, by allowing online gambling – but also significant difference in the tax regime : the suggested change made by the Ministry of Finance – changing the tax on 10% of the total revenue to 10% of the profit.
The current estimates say revenues from legal betting in Bulgaria is around 350 million euros and not too far from 300 million euros is gambled illeagaly.
But seeing this news and talking about Eastern Europe always makes me wonder if there isn’t something else behind the curtain. This is how I find that, according to some sources , behind the amendments, as worded in the proposal, would also cover two private firms, both owned by Bulgaria’s richest man, Vassil Bozhkov, namely lottery Eurochance and bookmakers Eurofootball.
And this is why the current president Georgi Parvanov will veto the law, if it passes tha Parliament procedure, considering it just to support private interests.
So – things are more complicated then it seems.
This is not a new report from the EU, but without any doubt the most important one related to the EU Policy in this domain.
“STUDY OF GAMBLING SERVICES IN THE INTERNAL MARKET OF THE EUROPEAN UNION “ was commissioned by the EU and has a proeminent role on the Gambling page at the Internal Market Services of the European Commission website.
The report reflects the situation until 31 December 2005 and was published on 14 June 2006. The study was made by the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law that focuses on the legal and economical issues related to gambling in the EU member states.
This is a must read for everyone that is interested in gambling policy in EU and suggest 2 Scenarios of future growth in the EU Gambling Industry . The report also includes several chapters in realtion with online gambling, of course.
It seems that the Sweden’s tax authority wants to clamp down on online gambling affiliate. Accoriding with a report from Gaming Intelligence Group the Skatteverket – Sweden’s Tax Office has issued “a request for information to the country’s internet infrastructure providers as part of their ongoing investigation of online commerce. Of notable interest to the tax authority is the income generated by online gaming affiliates active in the Swedish market. The Foundation for Internet Infrastructure, issuer of the country’s .se top level domain, along with web hosting companies and internet service providers are obliged to share their confidential customer information with the tax authority under the request, or face the possibility of substantial fines for failing to do so.”
Of course, many affiliates have gone offshore, – but th eTax guys want to use Xenon program, a web spider used to find evidence of tax evasion by the authorities in Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Canada and the United Kingdom.
The tax rate could rate as high as 57% anbd more penalties could be addded. The tax authorities say there are more than 5 billion swedish krowns not taxed Internet operations winnings…
Wouldn’t be easier if they had a clear-cut framework with lower tax rates ?
Microgaming, the largest software house of gambling online, announces that the Lotteries and Gaming Authority LGA- Malta has issued a license online class IV for its casinos produced by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority LGA- Malta.
The license will bring benefits to partners of software providers who have the desire to work in Europe. In addition, provide a process easier for those operators who hope to put its headquarters in Malta making the trip much easier. A number of operators Microgaming will benefit from these new, having already begun the process to obtain a license from Malta in the footsteps of class IV of Microgaming.
Malta – the first member of the EU to regulate the game online, offers 4 classes online gambling licenses, subjecting the applicators to probity checks as part of a broader and targeted control of the business plan, technical expertise and a complete control of conformity. The license of Class IV of the complete casino license Class IV that Microgaming has been allocated for its network of poker at the beginning of this year.
In another news released this week, Microgaming announces that it strengthens its platform Poker in South America through one of the largest operators, the Chilean room www.mamamiagaming.com that hopes to grow increasingly on the continent in which it operates.
For now the highest concentration of the game Mamamia Poker operates in Chile and Argentina, but the idea is to increase membership in Europe thanks to entry in the network of Microgaming room that offers 19 different languages for managing game.