Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-14-Speech-2-398"
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"en.20061114.39.2-398"2
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"Mr President, I am not the author of the question but the Chairperson of the committee that is taking the question forward on behalf of Members. I want to stress that the members of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection took a unanimous decision to table this oral question to ask the Commissioner for an update regarding the ongoing infringement proceedings against nine Member States concerning restrictions imposed on sports betting markets.
The committee would like the Commission to tell us in particular what progress has been made on the infringement proceedings launched on 4 April 2006 and what future steps are planned in this area. Is the Commissioner considering a legal framework for online gambling?
As we are on the brink of agreeing the Services Directive, we are well aware of the need for Member States to fulfil their Treaty obligations under Article 49 as regards the free movement of services. The Commissioner will be aware of the committee’s decision to remove gambling services from the Services Directive, not least because of the complexity of the gambling market. However, the freedom to provide services has in the case of the gambling sector clashed with national law in a number of Member States, which have introduced restrictive laws limiting the cross-border supply of online betting and gambling services.
We support the Commission in ensuring that these laws are compatible with Article 49, while respecting the rights of Member States to protect the public interest, as long as the rules are necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory, i.e. not discriminating against other EU operators. It is hypocritical, on public interest grounds, for a Member State to prevent other EU online operators from entering a national market, while at the same time allowing its own national online market to grow considerably while not applying those public interest rules. That is the issue we hope the Commission will address.
I would like to take the debate in a different direction. I believe that we need an EU response to the challenge of the global online gambling market. This is a market set to grow to a value of EUR 20 billion by 2010. In 2003, in the EU-25 commercial gaming industries, lotteries and casinos and betting services were worth some EUR 51.5 billion and there are some 2300 worldwide online casino sites. In the UK, for example, during the World Cup football matches, 30% of those making online bets on UK services were women. It crosses all classes and all generations. The rapid growth of online services and remote gambling and betting services has de facto already erased national boundaries.
However, let us not follow the US model of pulling up the drawbridge by enacting the 2006 Bush legislation – the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, making it a crime for banks to process or transfer funds via online betting sites. This is simply protectionism hiding behind a smokescreen of the so-called protection of consumers against gambling excesses. In reality, it is a law to stop foreign operators from competing or undermining the US casino and gambling market, while the States of Nevada and Las Vegas continue to develop their own online and remote gambling services.
I believe it would be good if the Commissioner, on behalf of the 25 Member States, would engage in the campaign to get an international agreement on standards and rules in regulating eGambling. This is one way to minimise the differences between not only the international community but also the EU Member States, to ensure in the end that all states opt in to high standards both for operators and consumers. The objective would be to ensure that we develop standards to protect vulnerable consumers, in particular young adults and minors, to engender a sense of social responsibility from good operators and investors and to ensure that gambling is not used as a source of crime or financing criminal activities.
The internet genie is out of the bottle: some 3.3 million EU citizens are regular online gamblers. This is a market that will grow. The EU should therefore be part of a wider international campaign for good and high standards. We need greater international cooperation to curb problem gambling and more research into the extent of participation in remote gambling. The study commissioned by the European Commission on gambling services in the internal market highlights the need to find common international standards and regulatory requirements that will protect EU citizens while allowing the market to operate.
I hope the Commissioner will feel encouraged by tonight’s debate to continue with infringement proceedings. However, in reality, it is a thankless task, which takes years to resolve, often not with a satisfactory conclusion, and I believe the best way forward is for the EU now to be a leader, driving good and high common international standards that can help minimise the differences, protect consumers and force the operators to be socially responsible."@en1
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