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Germany Warned on Internet Gambling Ban
Germany received some serious cautioning regarding the draft legislation. Guenter Verheugen, commissioner of the European Union's industry, wrote to German states cautioning them saying that they had only a month to rework and revise on the draft legislation, which would pose a ban on the online gambling or else face some possible legal actions.
The Commission official said, “We asked Germany to reconsider the total ban on lottery and sports betting on the Internet. We think a proposed total ban is disproportionate and there are less restrictive measures, such as mandatory prior registration and strict guarantees on identification."
He continued, "We feel Germany has not provided sufficient data that justified the total ban. Germany has a month to reply. An infringement proceeding is one possibility."
Everyone was expecting this speculation, since the past one week and finally it came officially. It would be very interesting to see how Germany would responds to this official statement.
The warning came after the EU had also severely criticized Denmark, Finland and Hungary for blocking foreign betting firms.
In fact, Reuters news agency, reporting the European Union’s warning spotted an unknown EU policymaker as saying that the German plans were inconsistent because they allowed horse racing but banned other forms of gaming.
In many European nations, betting is still a state-controlled monopoly. Different countries in different places seem to be following diversified ways when it comes to banning rule. Also, it was observed that there was no particular uniformity, maintained in any of the states.
However, the European Union law states that EU countries have no right and are not supposed to block companies of other member states from operating in their host markets if they allow domestic companies to operate gambling sites and lotteries, and run betting operations.
Amidst all the controversies and speculations, the Commission said that it had asked Germany to reconsider the total ban on lottery and sports betting on the internet. It is also learnt that EU has also advised in the lines of developing a good and liberal policies and regulations (in the interest of the public) for a better practices.
