Many provisions of a proposed German State gambling treaty breach...

up in the European Court of Justice and be fined. The EC document wasn’t available. While the draft law seems to open Germany’s market for online sports betting operators from all EU members, it actually reserves the market for incumbent national monopolies, EGBA said. Among other things, it said, the measure: (1) Limits the number of sports betting licenses to seven while exempting the state monopoly from having to apply for a license. (2) Sets a nearly 17 percent tax on the amount wagered on all operators, which will make online betting uneconomic and exclude Internet gambling operators. (3) Bundles offline and online betting together and applies a commercial viability test to potential operators, putting online-only providers at a disadvantage when seeking a license. (4) Allows some casino games to be offered online but only by specified companies already offering land-based casino games in Germany. The states don’t agree on the treaty, with the state of Schleswig-Holstein preparing to enact an alternative law that will open the sports betting market to EU-licensed operators and reduce the attractions of the black market for consumers, EGBA said. The EC didn’t object to that measure and EGBA supports it, it said. This isn’t the first time recently that the EC has come down on a national gambling proposal; earlier this month it said that some of the provisions of Greece’s draft law could be incompatible with EU law. EGBA sees a trend toward EU jurisdictions reforming their gambling laws to include Internet gambling and moving away from prohibitions and monopolies, Secretary General Sigrid Ligné told us. But governments must notify the EC of their proposed measures and in several recent cases the EC has found potential breaches of EU law, she said. While some countries try to fix their legislation to resolve EC concerns, others, such as Germany in the past, Estonia and Belgium more recently, have decided to ignore the EC, she said. Those governments are taking advantage of the lack of follow-up by the EC, which since 2008 hasn’t taken any action to litigate against them or step up pending infringement procedures, she said. That leads to growing fragmentation of the regulatory framework for online gambling operators and isn’t sustainable, she said. EGBA expects the situation to be fully revealed when the EC publishes its discussion paper on Internet gambling, which should force it to take urgent actions against violators, she said.