BELGIUM ONLINE GAMBLING IN 2010
8 January 2010
European nation appears intent on following
the Italian model
Despite grumbling from the European Commission on its
restrictions of gambling services from other EU nations,
it appears that the Belgian government is forging ahead
with its plans for Belgian-exclusive online gambling
regulation in 2010.
The current direction in
which Belgian law is moving is strongly reminiscent of
the successful Italian approach, which requires
licensees to be based in the country and subject to its
laws and taxes, with restrictions on what type and where
players can find poker action. This model has resulted
in operators from other nations forming Italian
partnerships and setting up dedicated Italian poker
networks in order to satisfy local requirements and
access a market that is burgeoning despite the
restrictions imposed by Italian regulator AAMS.
The Belgian newspaper De Standaard reports that new
regulations coming into force in 2010 will effectively "nationalise"
the operations of online poker rooms and casinos by
excluding outside operators from promoting to Belgians.
Online poker rooms would have to set up a separate
operation that would be licensed by the Belgian
government and located within the country. And the
availability of licenses would be kept to a minimum,
favouring Belgian applicants.
Such an outcome
would appear to fly in the face of a European Commission
opinion in mid-2009 on the proposed Belgian law, in
which the Commission advised that the restrictions
envisaged by the Belgians on operators from fellow EU
nations would conflict with EU principles on the free
movement of goods and services.
However, with
changes in the executive of the European Commission now
imminent (see previous InfoPowa reports) it is by no
means certain that the principles will be upheld with
equal vigour by the new EC management.
The trend
by governments toward constraining online gambling
within geographic national boundaries seeks to negate
the cross-border and global nature of online gambling as
it has developed so far, thanks to the powerful
capabilities and global reach of the Internet. But such
a political policy suits individual governments long
frustrated by a system that transcends international and
political boundaries - and taxation possibilities - in
allowing players to compete at any time with their
counterparts all over the world.
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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