Leaders of the world’s top online gaming firms are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore. In response to last Tuesday’s detainment of bwin.party co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger in Brussels, Belgium, 14 executives from 12 internet gambling companies penned a public letter to the Financial Times saying that enough is enough when it comes to European Union (EU) countries ignoring EU law.
To recap, Teufelberger was set to make the closing remarks at Responsible Gaming Day, put on by the European and Betting and Gaming Association (EGBA), of which he is Chairman, when he was detained by Belgian police. The authorities reportedly kept him for two hours (he was allowed to make his speech first), questioning him about bwin.party’s activities in Belgium.
bwin.party has found itself on the short end of extremely strict Belgian gaming regulations, which, among other things, require online poker operators to have a brick-and-mortar presence in the country in order to be granted an online gaming license. Only six operators – PokerStars.be, Poker770.be, Partouche.be, Win2day, GoldenPalace.be, and Unibet – have received licensed. To make matters worse, some of bwin.party’s websites have been put on the Belgian Gaming Commission’s (BGC) blacklist. Despite the blacklist status, bwin.party has continued to operate in Belgium.
While Belgium’s regulations may be cut and dry, they are not without controversy. bwin.party, as well as other gaming companies and organizations, feel they run contrary to EU law and have been fighting them for several years.
Norbert Teufelberger himself was one of the 14 executives to sign the letter to the Financial Times, along with co-CEO Jim Ryan. The others were:
Michael Carlton – CEO, Victor Chandler International
Denise Coates and John Coates – Joint CEOs, bet365
Stéphane Courbit – President, Betclic Everest Group
Canel Frichet – CEO, Winamax
Noel Hayden – Managing Director, Gamesys
Denis Kelly – CEO, Stan James
Brian Mattingly – CEO, 888 Holdings
Andrew McIver – CEO, Sportingbet
Magnus Silfverberg – CEO, Betsson
Ralph Topping – CEO, William Hill
Ed Ware – CEO, 32Red
In the letter, which was posted at FT.com, the executives expressed their resentment towards both the EU Belgian law enforcement, saying, “While the Belgian authorities are free to intimidate Europe’s leading online gaming groups with threats about the consequences of challenging their domestic gambling laws, the European Commission has yet to receive an answer to its own concerns regarding the regulatory regime in Belgium that have remained unresolved since issuing its detailed opinion back in 2009.”
The letter reminded the Financial Times’ readers of the complaints against Belgium two years ago, quoting the head of the European Commission, Michel Barnier, from 2010 , “’…ensuring compliance of national law with the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) is a prerequisite of a successful EU policy on online gambling…if blatant infringements persist, I will not hesitate to propose to my colleagues that the appropriate proceedings be taken or relaunched.’”
The letter concluded, “We hope that the commission will now enforce compliance with the European treaty and do so swiftly. Countries such as Belgium and Greece that are in clear breach of EU law and that are seeking to enforce those laws domestically are likely to be at the top of the list. The time for polite rhetoric is now over. It is time for deeds not words.”
