EUROPE

Annette Kok, president of the European gaming and amusements trade body Euromat, has called on EU and national regulators to treat all kinds of gambling equally, but suggested that legislation would be best achieved on a territory-by-territory rather than pan-European basis.

Speaking at a conference in Brussels, she said: “We welcome the adoption of the [EU] green paper. It is an important first step. However, in order to be on the right track further consideration of a number of key issues is needed”, including enforcement, responsible-gambling principles and anti-crime measures.

She added: “National regulatory models do co-exist. Indeed, Euromat represents an industry that for more than 30 years has proven that it is possible to operate and collaborate within national frameworks.”

GERMANY

German authorities are reported to be considering new restrictions on AWPs, including a reduction in maximum prizes. Also on the table are compulsory closing times for gaming arcades, an advertising ban, and the right for individual states to limit the number of operating licences and enforce minimum distances between venues. The federal government is also contemplating a reduction in the maximum permitted number of machines in each pub or bar, from three to two.

GREECE

Greece’s grey online gaming market is estimated to be worth €210-260m, according to a new report from Gambling Data, with about 60 percent of that coming from sports betting.

The European Commission has ordered Greece to fix a two-tier ticket-price system which meant that consumers were charged just €6 to enter state-owned casinos, yet were required by law to pay €15 to pass through the portals of privately-run venues. With an 80 percent tax applied to both price levels, that arrangement meant that while state casinos were giving €4.80 per ticket back to the government, private outfits had to pay €12. The government won in two ways: by making its own properties more attractive to consumers through lower admission charges, and by imposing a much higher cost per customer acquisition on their rivals.

Now, the European Commission has ruled on a 2009 complaint that the system was discriminatory – and concurred. It rejected a government defence that the higher prices in private locations helped discourage gambling, and said the state must now reclaim additional money from its own casinos covering all entrance fees back to 1992, so that their per-customer tax bill is comparable to the private firms’. The Greek government has also said it is examining a restructure of the two-tier system.

MACAU

Casino operators in the Asian gambling capital have supported government proposals to increase the minimum age for entry into its casinos, from 18 to 21, bringin Macau into line with Nevada and Singapore. The proposed rule would also apply to employees.

NETHERLANDS

As we went to press, new regulations on machines in bars and arcades were awaited by the Dutch sector. The legalisation of cashless gaming was confidently expected, along with higher-prize machines in arcades and pubs, paying out up to €80 in the former and €60 in the latter on €0.20 stakes. However, the hourly average loss would be limited to €30 and payouts would be required to be above 70 percent.

PHILIPPINES

The land-based gaming market in the Philippines is predicted to become Asia Pacific’s third-largest, after Macau and Singapore. The CEO of the conglomerate Alliance Global Group, Kingson Sian, whose company operates the Resorts World Manila casino complex in the capital in partnership with Genting Malaysia, said that the gaming market in the Philippines would be bigger than that of Malaysia. One reason, according to Sian, would be an influx of visitors from China, Korea and Malaysia to the new Pagcor Entertainment City in Manila Bay, where Alliance will be among the operators.

SOUTH AFRICA

There is concern over the government’s plan to impose a 15 percent withholding tax on all gambling winnings of more than ZAR25,000 (€2500) from April next year. It would effectively increase operators’ hold percentage, it has been suggested, and dissuade consumers from spending their leisure budgets on gambling. Betting on horses is also expected to suffer if the tax comes into force.

SPAIN

The Spanish government is expected to put in place this summer the structures for gaming operators and suppliers to apply for licences under its new gaming laws, with applications possibly beginning as early as December.

UK

The British government has confirmed that the maximum stake on Category B3 gaming machines is to double from £1 to £2 and that adult gaming centres (AGCs) and bingo halls will be permitted to have more of them. While Category B3s are currently limited to four machines per AGC and eight per bingo hall, the new rules will allow them to make up 20 percent of all gaming machines on each site, with a minimum entitlement of four. Venues will, if they wish, be permitted to continue to operate with the old entitlements during a changeover period lasting to 2014.

Trade body Business in Sport and Leisure (BISL) welcomed the decision. The chairman of its gambling group, Praesepe CEO Nick Harding, said: “We will, at long last, see the UK gaming machine manufacturing industry starting to revive as a result of the sales of new products which will now follow this announcement. We are delighted that the coalition government has lived up to the pledges made by both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties while in opposition and hope that implementation of the changes will come soon enough to breathe life into a sector of UK manufacturing which has come to a virtual standstill and as a consequence suffered severe job losses in areas of already high unemployment.”

 He added that BISL would be asking the government to reintroduce the policy of reviewing gaming regulation every three years.

Separately, the government is expected to ban advertising by offshore online operators and prevent their customers using UK credit cards, according to reports. The Deparment of Culture, Media and Sport has recently concluded its public consultation on the review of British gaming law and it is therefore likely that other changes will soon be in the pipeline.

There has also been more enforcement activity in Britain. The Gambling Commission has served summonses on three men following an investigation into the suspected illegal provision of facilities for gambling without an operating or premises licence. That investigation included the seizure of assets such as gaming machines from ten premises operated by Agora Bet in southern England last year.

HM Revenue & Customs, meanwhile, has seized 85 gaming machines and the £24,000 in cash that they contained from four arcades in western England and south Wales. A spokesman said: “We are investigating the non-payment of at least £180,000 in Amusement Machine Licence Duty over a three-year period. Gaming-machine operators are legally required to pay the excise duty on each machine to purchase the appropriate licence. If they don’t, then our officers step in. We only seize machines as the last resort, when all other efforts have been exhausted.”

U.S.

Joe Barton, a congressman for Texas, has introduced in Washington another attempt to regulate online poker: the Internet Gambling Prohibition, Poker Consumer Protection, and Strengthening UIGEA Act of 2011. The proposed legislation would give the federal Department of Commerce overall responsibility for the online gaming sector, with licensing handled by state and tribal authorities.

It was cautiously welcomed by the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, although the organisation criticised it for preventing gambling with credit cards. “It simply doesn’t make sense, [as] consumer protections for users of credit cards are much greater than those involving most other forms of payment,” a representative said.

However, it is far from certain that any federal legislation on online gaming will resemble Barton’s bill, and several alternatives are also in circulation.

In Nevada, meanwhile, there is good news for lazy gamblers: the state will allow gaming in the bedrooms of casino hotels. Although at one point bedrooms were specifically excluded from the proposed legislation allowing gaming to extend into new locations beyond the main casino floor, governor Brian Sandoval has now approved rules that will let customers play electronically from their suites. Regulators had opposed the move, saying that it would make enforcement of gambling age limits impossible. But supporters cited research from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showing that fewer than seven percent of guests have kids in tow.

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