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EUROMAT represents the gaming and amusement industry to increase the overall competitiveness of the sector through engagement in policy and regulation formation at EU level.

Read more about Euromat

EUROMAT launches its Responsible Gambling publication in the European Parliament on 4 November 2009.

Click here for a copy of the publication
Click here for examples of R.G. activities Click here for the press release


EUROMAT launches a book on "The Future of Gaming and Amusement in Europe" in the European Parliament on 28 November 2006

Click here for a copy of the book
Press release available here

» EUROMAT Country Reports 2010

 
DECEMBER 2011
 
No gambling issues included among Danish EU Presidency Priorities

On 1 January 2012, Denmark took over the EU's rotating Presidency, which had been chaired by Poland during the past six months. On 16 December 2011, Denmark's Minister for European Affairs, Nicolai Wammen, presented the priorities of the upcoming Danish EU Presidency at a press conference in Brussels. With regards gambling, Denmark is not planning to include any related issues in its working plan. Hence, there are no major initiatives planned at the EU level prior to the European Commission's adoption of the "Communication on online gambling in the Internal Market", which is scheduled for mid-2012.

Please find here the priorities of the Danish EU Presidency.
Council of the EU adopts conclusions on fighting currency counterfeiting
 
On 14 December 2011, the Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of the EU Member States adopted Council Conclusions on strengthening cooperation and information exchange in the sphere of fighting currency counterfeiting, especially the euro.

Amongst other things, the Council acknowledged that the Geneva Convention on fighting money counterfeiting from 1929 has not yet been ratified in a number of third states and encouraged them to do so. In addition, the Council also called on the Member States and the European Commission to promote and support Europol's role as the Central Office for combating euro counterfeiting as well as to promote and lend support to the creation of a platform for information exchange in the sphere of euro protection against counterfeiting.

Please find here the Council Conclusions.

European Commission adopts Communication on the future of VAT

On 6 December 2011, the European Commission adopted a Communication on the future framework of VAT in the EU highlighting that the aim should be to move towards a "simpler, more robust and efficient" VAT system in the single market that is based on the destination principle (as opposed to the currently applied principle of origin).

According to the Commission, there are three overriding objectives which shape the vision for the new VAT system, namely (i) VAT must be made more workable for businesses, (ii) VAT must be made more efficient in supporting Member States' fiscal consolidation efforts and sustainable economic growth, and (iii) there is a need to stop the huge revenue losses that occur today due to uncollected VAT and fraud.


The Communication also lists priority areas for action. Amongst other issues, the Commission will examine some of the current exemptions to assess whether the economic, social or technical reasons for them are still valid and whether the way they are applied can be improved. With regards gambling, for instance, the current Sixth VAT Directive 2006/112/EC indicates that "Member States shall exempt (...) betting, lotteries and other forms of gambling, subject to the conditions and limitations laid down by each Member State". The Commission has, however, not yet given further details about the scope of its revision of exemptions for the time being.


Please find here the European Commission Communication.

Gambling continues to be the main topic of a number of conferences across Europe


On 1 December 2011, the Conference "Online gambling at a policy crossroads: Towards an EU regulatory approach or increased member States' cooperation?" organised by the Centre for Mediterranean Europe Foundations (MESEURO) in collaboration with Lottomatica Group and Sisal, took place in Brussels. In general, participants agreed on the need to first enhance cooperation between national regulators before considering whether there is an actual need for EU legislation. The representative from the European Commission explained that the Commission's aim will be to deal with the cross-border aspect of online gambling and help Member States maintain their national systems.

On 29 and 30 November 2011, the 2nd Annual International Gaming Law Summit 2011 took place in London. EUROMAT's Secretary General, Lucy Cronin, who participated in the panel "The European Green Paper: A Glimmer of Hope for Harmonisation?", stressed the need to ensure a level playing field across the entire gambling arena. Ms Cronin explained that, although harmonisation of gambling rules would not be the right approach, an EU framework Directive exclusively addressing the online sector, due to its cross-border nature, should be considered to achieve proper enforcement of rules and guarantee consumer protection.

 

The Council of the EU adopts conclusions on combating match-fixing

On 29 November 2011, the Council of the EU adopted conclusions on combating match-fixing, which aim to foster close cooperation and information sharing between Member States, the European Commission, the sports world and gambling operators in order to tackle this problem.

Due to recent rapid growth of online betting, sport in Europe has been confronted with several scandals linked to the manipulation of results of many sports which usually also involved a number of criminal activities, such as corruption or money laundering. Hence, the Council called for the development of educational programmes and better monitoring systems and invited the Commission to analyse the current situation in order to present recommendations to address the problem of match-fixing.

Please find here the Council Conclusions.

 

Remote gambling industry files a complaint about Greek law

 

On 28 November 2011, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) and the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding the recently adopted Greek online gambling law. EGBA and RGA are of the opinion that the Greek online Gambling law contains a range of uncompetitive measures and non-EU compliant barriers to new market entrants, which place unnecessary and unjustified economic burdens on new operators, such as a requirement of a permanent establishment in Greece and the limitation of financial transactions only to Greek banks.


Moreover, the associations are concerned about the new tax regime, which will require licensed gambling operators operating in Greece, to pay their taxes on any revenues earned from Greece-based customers retroactive from 1 January 2010 until the new licences have been awarded.


At the beginning of October, the RGA lodged also a state aid complaint with the European Commission challenging the compatibility of the Greek Government's new gambling law with EU State aid requirements. The association argued against the "favourable" tax treatment afforded to the part state-owned gambling operator OPAP's land-based services in relation to private online gambling operators.


Please find here the RGA press release.

 

 
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