Regulation round-up 24 July 2012
The biggest regulatory news from the egaming industry in the last seven days (18 July to 24 July 2012).
William Hill confirms German withdrawal
Operator pulled out of market on Friday “ bwin.party only company to confirm plans to continue operating in market.
William Hill has become the latest operator to confirm its decision to withdraw from Germany, shutting its doors to players from Friday 20 July.
German punters can still play online casino and poker on the operator’s site, however sportsbook customers are no longer able to place bets. At the time of writing Hills’ share price had fallen 3.5p, down to 289.1p.
It joins 188Bet in exiting the market after the passage of the Federal Horse Racing and Lottery Act on 1 July, bringing into force the controversial state treaty signed by 15 of the 16 German Länder. Under the terms of the new legislation the Bundestag will award 20 sports betting-only licences, with operators taxed on 5% of sportsbook turnover. As neither is regulated, operators will not be taxed on casino and poker, but may face yet-to-be-announced sanctions for offering illegal products.
Regulation has already been heavily criticised by the the European Commission, which explained that restrictions on egaming services must be suitable to satisfy the objectives of the relevant law “ something which it says is lacking in the current framework, alongside a failure to justify the ban on online poker and casino. These claims were supported by the German Monopolies Commission, which called for a “fundamental overhaul” of legislation.
High Court finds in favour of Betfair over Levy
Betfair has welcomed a High Court ruling that exchange betting operators are not liable for Horse Racing Levy payments.
The findings, following a judicial review instigated by William Hill last year, are described by Betfair’s head of legal and regulatory affairs Martin Cruddace as having “Vindicated the position of Betfair”.
“It is now neither sustainable nor rational to argue that Betfair customers should be liable to pay the Levy any more than should customers of any other betting operator,” added Cruddace, noting that “It is ironic that William Hill’s online business pays not a penny in Levy itself, despite making tens of millions of pounds in profits annually from British Racing. Yet still, it chose to argue that an undefined class of exchange customers should be required to pay Levy.”
Seven days in regulation:
Ireland publishes new egaming bill
Ireland’s finance department has published a new bill which would require egaming operators taking more than 10% of bets or 200,000 in bets per year to obtain a remote gaming licence.
The Betting (Amendment) Bill 2012 also requires all offshore operators taking remote bets from the Republic to apply for such a licence, while “remote betting intermediary” licences are also to be introduced for betting exchanges.
Successful applicants will pay 1% turnover tax from online sportsbook operations, while betting exchanges will be subject to a 15% gross profits tax on revenues.
Reid and Kyl seek Republican support for federal online poker
United States Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl are close to finalising their federal online poker bill but will now focus on gaining Republican support, Reid and a Democratic aide have confirmed.
Rumours have been circulating that Reid and Kyl had agreed terms for their bill, partly fuelled by Poker Players Alliance executive director John Pappas saying last month that their negotiations were “likely complete”.
Any federal bill introduced would be poker-only and use the argument that as a game of skill, with players competing against each other, it is less prone to fraud.
Stars to move German players to dot.eu
Germany will become the latest European country to see its poker players moved to PokerStars’ dot.eu client, the operator has confirmed, with migration due to take place this afternoon.
Six countries are already served by the domain, set up upon PokerStars’ receipt of a Malta licence earlier this year, with the Netherlands the most recent to make the switch in June. The other jurisdictions where PokerStars players have been redirected from dot.com to dot.eu are Finland, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Sweden.
Players will remain in the same player-pool as dot.com players, meaning the liquidity of games is unaffected by the change with a statement on the operator’s dot.eu blog explaining: “For the German players, this changes nothing, only the software is converted to the new [dot.eu] version.”