Sigrid Ligne is secretary-general of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), the voice of the leading online gaming operators in Europe. She believes that the need is clearly there for aacoherent and regulated approach to online gambling at European Union level.
What is the EGBA's view of the new instances of openness in the EU member states?
More and more member states have evolved in recent months from a monopolistic or prohibitionist approach towards a regulated approach based on a national licensing system. This is a move in the right direction but it is still inadequate. Drawing up national rules for a sector that by its very nature is cross-border in scope will not represent an effective response to the challenges of consumer protection and preservation of law and order. Some of these new regulations even run counter to EU law and competition rules and are being disputed at national or Community level. Lastly, the cost of such fragmentation and duplication of national requirements is particularly high. A study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2010 shows that the administrative and technical costs of obtaining and keeping a licence in France amount to 8.7 million for a European operator who is already licensed in one or more EU member states. The adoption of a European approach is therefore essential.
What do you expect of the green paper?
The consultation is expected to identify the real challenges in terms of consumer protection and fraud prevention, which we welcome. What we expect of the Commission upon conclusion of the consultation is a proposal for a regulatory framework for online gambling, as it has done for other sectors that are intrinsically highly regulated, such as telecommunications or pharmaceuticals. In parallel, the Commission must play its role as guardian of the treaty, and vigorously and systematically continue to open infringement cases against member states that continue to infringe EU law.
How can criminal abuse or public health concerns inherent to online gambling, be halted?
Abuse is in fact easier to control online than in traditional networks but this requires a coherent and regulated approach at European Union level. In a regulated environment, online gambling offers a high level of traceability and transparency. Thanks in particular to electronic payments, every transaction leaves a digital fingerprint'. The internet offers fraud prevention and detection opportunities that are hard to reproduce in physical gambling establishments, as the Commission confirmed in its green paper.
As for the problem of addiction, this risk is present in all forms of games of chance, whether these are played at establishments or online. The European online gambling sector is particularly in the lead on responsible gambling and gives players a wide range of online tools to help prevent or limit these risks. These include, for instance, activation by the player of exclusion, cool-off or risk limitation options.
What are the criteria for your code of professional ethics?
You are probably referring to the EGBA standards adopted by our association in 2007. This is a list of rules and technical specifications that we impose on all our members and that is audited annually to guarantee that all our rules on responsible gambling are being complied with in full. This list is updated regularly to include advances in research and to implement the most effective technical solutions for the protection of minors, fraud prevention and protection of vulnerable players. These standards of course stand alongside binding legal rules and in no case replace them. We are currently in the process of updating this list to take account of the 134 responsible gambling measures adopted recently in the framework of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).
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