Klaus used his veto June 9, and because a new Parliament has yet to be sworn in, the Chamber of Deputies is unable to overrule the veto. To pass any changes in the future, new legislation on the issue will have to start from scratch.

“The president and his advisers seriously misjudged the matter and have ignored the social consequences of gambling,” gambling and alcohol addiction expert and psychiatrist Dr. Karel Nešpor told The Prague Post. “It’s a great shame. It shows Klaus is only concerned with economic matters.”

Meanwhile, in a statement on its Web site, the Green Party labelled the current legislation as “scandalous” and said the veto meant the “continuation of an already unbearable state ... of gambling hell.”

UKRAINE

The ban on gambling business in Ukraine was the main topic of conversation at the recent Russian Gaming Week conference in Moscow last month.

The ban has been in place since June 25, 2009 when the government decided that no business should be done until legislation was passed to allow casinos in specially designated zones. But the legislation was not accepted for a year and now the Ukrainian government is considering new plans for developing gaming in the country.

The Government’s intentions for the development of the gambling business in Ukraine are quite serious. During the G2E Asia 2010 exhibition in Macau, a group of representatives of the Ukrainian businesses visited. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Alsart Group, Lyubov Loginova was a member of the delegation. The delegation also included several officials responsible for the development of gambling business in Ukraine. They visited the exhibition as well as local casinos - for a better understanding of the industry and the nuances of the organization of gambling in hotels.

“There are about 30 variants of the new gambling law now being considered by Ukrainian lawmakers - from the rational to the completely absurd, ” commented the Lyubov Loginova, - “What will be the final version of the gambling laws of Ukraine - time will tell. One thing is certain: in this month or in the autumn of 2010 it will be adopted.”

HUNGARY

Critics of Hungary’s new poker laws believe the rules will drive players towards illegal gambling dens and into the arms of offshore online operators following the introduction of the unpopular measures at the start of this month.

Ever since Hungary amended the Gambling Act of 1991 and introduced it’s new “poker law” on May 1st, the state of the country’s poker industry has been in turmoil with many poker club owners shutting shop and players taking their custom online to foreign poker cardrooms, instead.

Initially, Hungary’s Gambling Act of 1991 was designed to allow the government to exercise control over the country’s gambling establishments, and also redirect poker players away from their preferred poker clubs to casinos.

However, the Draconian laws passed after a December Parliamentary bill defined poker as gambling, have instead negatively affected the industry as a whole as poker players and casinos alike are now subject to a whole series of taxes making the game an unprofitable proposition.

Under the new laws, poker players will have to pay 30% taxes on any winnings, and poker clubs and casinos will have to adhere to a strict set of restrictions including a 15% limit on profits and a 30% tax on revenues. Any infractions of the laws could result in hefty fines or even a prison sentence of up to two years.

Despite Hungary prohibiting online gambling sites from operating inside the country, many poker players have now turned their attention towards playing their favourite game on external foreign owned online poker sites, in order to avoid the heavy taxes.

As the recent move to regulate gambling seems to be backfiring, it is now rumoured that the government is considering even more drastic measures to rein in the industry. The newly elected conservative based Fidesz Party in Hungary is currently believed to be contemplating a country wide ban on online gambling with even the Chairperson of Sports and Tourism, Erik Bánki hugely in favour of such a sweeping move.

As Hungary’s government gets tougher on the poker industry, they risk driving the country’s poker players further underground and creating a whole new group of potential ‘criminals.’

POLAND

A law swiftly enacted in January sees the demise of the use of privately operated gaming machines in Poland. The Polish Government’s new law has resulted in fury and indignation among businesses involved who will bring their plight to Brussels this month in a series of meetings with EU officials.

The European Commission has already been called on to examine whether an infringement case could be brought against the Polish Government on the basis that it failed to notify the new law.

In essence, the new proposals were propelled into law following a dramatic scandal, where leading politicians governing: “Platforma Obywatelska”, were accused of forcing through legal solutions, beneficial for their “friends” working in the gambling field. However, instead of regulating the market, the new law, which is not evidence-based, still seems to favour a narrow group of casino owners and has strengthened the position of the state-owned gambling company and organiser of national lotteries: “Totalizator Sportowy”, while completely annihilating the small and medium-sized companies who privately operate gaming machines in Poland.

It is believed that the closure of this once legally-run sector will have a disastrous effect on local and regional jobs estimated in the region of 100,000 people. This is compounded by the fact that an inevitable consequence of banning the machines is the activation of an illegal network of games, impossible to monitor or control by public authorities.

Andrzej Sadowski, from the independent think tank: the Adam Smith Centre has expressed his alarm at the government’s action when he said. “Gambling existed during the times of deep communism in Poland and we know how repressive the system was. Now we are finding ourselves in a situation, where once again the return of the grey zone and corruptive solutions will begin”.

The Polish Chamber of Commerce of Producers and Operators of Amusement Equipment1, representing private gaming machine operators, asserts that the Polish Government ignored EU internal market rules on freedom to provide services, failed to notify the Commission of the intent of the legislation and moreover abandoned the normal democratic process by enacting the law within three days of presenting it to Parliament. The association is bringing this flagrant abuse of the democratic process to the attention of key policy makers and politicians in the European Commission and European Parliament in the hope that they will stop the Polish government in its tracks.

ROMANIA

Romania’s gambling operators this week organised a mass strike in protest at government plans to impose new taxes they claim could devastate the gaming industry in the country

To protest legislation that would put a 25% tax on all profit made on gambling, over 96% of bricks-and-mortar bookmakers in Romania closed up shop on June 11, the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and have yet to reopen. Dan Matei Agathon, head of the Alliance of Employers (ACPR) union, stated that the protest “aims to draw the government’s attention to (the fact that) the government’s overcharging can lead to unemployment and encouragement of illegal betting.”

Romania is home to 1,505 registered bookmakers and 1,455 are protesting the new draft law. In the past, all winnings made from gambling were taxed but with the first 600 lei (about $177) or so exempt from taxation. Under the auspices of the extant Romanian gambling laws, the government had been drawing 4.2 million lei ($1.24 million) per month in taxes.

Supporters of the draft law claim that this new taxation could add over $3.72 million in revenue in the first six months alone, but protesting bookmakers argue that passage of the bill would result in thousands of jobs lost and fear that their business will be lost to online gambling. An impact study undertaken by undertaken by an ACPR group showed that implementation of a similar measure in 2005 reduced the average bookmaker’s earnings by 47.5% and the number of bookmakers by 30%.

ESTONIA

On 12 May, the European Commission confirmed Estonia had met all the accession criteria to join the eurozone in 2011. Estonia will now be the 17th country to join the single currency bloc while Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden are still preparing to join. Following the European Commission’s recommendation, EU procedures prescribe that European leaders must now accept the recommendation at a summit in June 2010 before EU Finance Ministers give final approval for Estonian entry at a meeting in July 2010. Should all the procedures continue without incident, Estonia will adopt the euro on 1 January 2011.

Estonia, located in Eastern Europe, has legalized the gambling industry. Article 2 of Estonia’s Law on Gambling authorizes only the state to offer gambling services in Estonia, though the state can delegate this right by issuing licenses. Currently, there are 72 gambling facilities, strictly consisting of casinos, which are distributed among Estonia’s 12 cities. Gambling and lottery matters are under the regulatory jurisdiction of Estonian Federal law. For the time being, interactive gambling is not legally regulated in Estonia and no licenses are granted for this industry.

Estonia’s Federal Law on Gambling, State Gazette I, 95, 58, 1005, is one of the regulatory gambling laws in Estonia. It defines games of chance, games of skill, totalizators (electronic machines showing racetrack results) and betting services. It also prohibits advertisement of gambling games except in locations where gambling has been authorized.

Estonia’s legal gambling options also include online wagering. Sport betting on the Internet, for example, is very popular. Casinos gambling in Estonia provide an additional sports betting feature to attract players. Casinos have even developed a way to identify each player, and to ascertain that the player is at least 21 years of age; otherwise, the gaming account may be seized by the state.

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