Skill games: Will skill games be regulated in France?

By Thibault Verbiest, Attorney at the Paris and Brussels bar, Founding partner of Ulys Law Firm and Deborah Modiano, Attorney at the Paris bar

On February, 24^th, 2012, the French online gambling regulator, ARJEL, submitted a set of four reports to the Ministry of Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform, including one relating to online skill games. This report was drafted at the request of the Ministry of Budget in order to regulate the online skill games industry and to increase French tax revenues. This report has not been published yet.

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Kiel Gaming Act gets support from Denmark and from the Liberal Party – Social Democratic Party (SPD) continues its collision course with Brussels

By Dr. Wulf Hambach

Copenhagen/Kiel, in October 2011 – Flashback: 17 December 2010 was a cold pre-Christmas day – whilst outside an icy wind blew around the Kiel parliament building, the conservative-liberal coalition government engaged in a heated debate with the social democrats in the plenary hall. The agitated discussion was triggered during the first reading of the Kiel model act, which is based on the Danish model for the regulation of gaming. It was this path-finding look towards the north which the fathers of the Kiel draft, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) economics expert Hans-Jörn Arp and FPD chief strategist Wolfgang Kubicki, were accused of by the SPD. The criticism in the Kiel parliament was that they had bet on a dead horse. The reason: In autumn 2010, the EU Commission had admitted for examination an EU state aid complaint due to the low taxation of online games in comparison to terrestrial games. In this context, the Danish reform project, which had obtained international praise, initially got caught in the web of the terrestrial casino lobby. … Continue Reading

A damning indictment, disgrace, hammering: Disastrous verdict on the draft for the new German gambling treaty – Brussels rejects proposal submitted by the Minister Presidents

By Andreas Schultheis

Brussels/Kiel/Munich, July 2011 – What had to happen, happened: On eleven pages, the European Commission has torn to pieces the proposal for a new inter-state treaty on gambling (GlüStV) submitted by 15 federal states (E 15) – not including Schleswig-Holstein. Brussels criticises the E 15 draft in particular because it provides for seven time-restricted national licences from 2012 onwards, which at best constitutes a conditional opening of the sports betting market. Until today, the reason for the number of seven licences has remained a well-kept secret of the conference of Minister Presidents and their gambling advisors. Furthermore, the draft provides for a non-competitive licensing duty of 16.66 per cent of the stakes, on top of the normal value added tax.
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EGR: Germany a deeply divided market

By Stephen Carter, published in eGaming Review magazine, issue January 2011, p. 14

20.12.2010

Recent court rulings by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and German judges has further shaken the fragile foundations of the country’s gaming monopoly based in its State Gambling Treaty.
These ructions began late last year when respective CDU and FDP parliamentary group leaders Hans-Jörn Arp and Wolfgang Kubicki in the German state or Länder of Schleswig-Holstein announced that in 2011 remote gambling operators would be able to obtain online sports betting, casino and poker licences based on “the Danish model” – a 20% gross profit tax – and be able to operate when the current Treaty lapses from 1 January 2012 onwards. (…) … Continue Reading