At the end of the month of July will be published the green paper of the European Commission, book in which views on the games online in Europe will be presented.
As you know, since April 15, several questions arise on online gaming legislation in the various countries of the world. To this day, except some European countries including France with the ARJEL, no country has precise regulation on online gaming in general and on online poker in particular (except the United States obviously that ban online poker, but given that the decision is not final and still to review, we only will take not currently).
Recently, we learned that the United Kingdom intended to tax the poker online of the sites from outside. For example, the people of the United Kingdom can play on websites based abroad like PokerStars and pay no tax/tax. Jeremy Hunt who is currently Minister of culture plans big changes by the end of 2012. Sites authorized to make offers of games are the sites on their 'white list', as PokerStars for example, located in the Isle of Man (under British dependency). The reason for this revision of the law of online poker is consequence of recent history on Full Tilt Poker.
According to the representatives of the Ministry of Culture, this story explains the reasons which lead them to want to reform the growing online game industry by itself.
According to John Penrose, Minister of tourism, the reform should be done "so that all operators engaged in the UK market, they operate from here or from abroad, are forced to obtain a licence from the Gambling Commission to be allow to pass the transaction with British consumers and advertise to the Great Britain".
The same wave was launched in Belgium recently where the operators of online games, in the image of the France, will be required to apply for licences to operate on their soil.
The Green Paper which is spoken above March 24 was published and submitted to consultation until July 31, date of its publication.
The book offers only recommendations and does not act. One of the issues raised by the Green Paper is that in Europe, several laws contradict each other (where the inevitable confusion). In other words, its purpose is to put an end to the proliferation of restrictive and anti-competitive national laws imposed on the operators of gambling online. The Green Paper seeks to provide a basis for the development of a European law with emphasis on the protection of the consumer, the prevention of pathological gambling, the respect of the laws in force, the fight against money laundering and fraud.
According to him, the operators authorised in one Member State can offer their services to consumers from other Member States unless they impose restrictions justified by overriding reasons of general interest. Therefore, according to this book, no valid reason would prevent a Spanish play on a site governed by the Belgium and vice versa. On the other hand, for the moment, if we take the example of the France, a French cannot play on sites in .FR. In other words, PokerStars.NET is accessible, but not PokerStars.com
PokerCollectif will keep you informed of the publication of this Green Paper next. In the meantime, you can discuss this article on the forums of PokerCollectif: LEGISLATION: the game online in Europe
