Online gambling sites can be banned as EU bars Ladbrokes from taking Dutch bets
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:44 AM on 4th June 2010
Britain and other EU countries can ban foreign online gambling sites, Europe's highest court ruled after a marathon legal battle by Ladbrokes.
英國和其它歐盟國家能夠禁止外國線上賭博網站，歐洲最高法庭作出裁決，在一立博的馬拉松官司後。
It follows the British bookmaker’s seven-year bid to overturn a Dutch injunction against it taking bets from people living in Holland.
它跟進英國博彩公司的7年企圖，去推翻針對它收取荷蘭居住的人的賭注的荷蘭禁令。
The injunction had been granted to De Lotto, runners of the Dutch lottery, which argued that Ladbrokes.com had no licence for gaming in the Netherlands.
禁令已被授予德樂透，荷蘭彩票業的亞軍，它爭論 Ladbrokes.com在荷蘭沒有遊戲牌照。
Banned in Holland: Ladbrokes.com, whose barring has been upheld by the EU在荷蘭被禁：Ladbrokes.com的限制已被歐盟維持
A Ladbrokes appeal to the Dutch Supreme Court was passed to the European Court of Justice, which acknowledged today that Dutch gaming legislation is technically a restriction on EU rules guaranteeing freedom of movement and freedom to provide services.
However, the judges said such a restriction ‘may be justified by the objectives of consumer protection and the prevention of both fraud and incitement to squander money on gambling, as well as the need to preserve public order’.
In the absence of EU-level harmonisation of the online gaming industry, it was up to national authorities to decide whether on measures to protect their consumers, the judges said.
‘A member state is therefore entitled to take the view that the mere fact that an operator such as the Ladbrokes companies lawfully offer services in that sector via the internet in another member state is not a sufficient assurance that national consumers will be protected,’ said the judgement.
Ladbrokes had argued that its UK-issued licence allowing it to offer ‘sports-related prize competitions and other games of chance’ via the internet and by telephone was sufficient to cover operations elsewhere in the EU.
The UK licence was subject to ‘very strict legislation for the prevention of fraud and of addiction to games of chance’, pointed out Ladbrokes - and the Dutch ban on its internet services to Dutch gamblers amounted to an unnecessary ‘duplication of controls and safeguards’.
But today's ruling stated: ‘A member state can prohibit the operation of games of chance on the internet.
'This prohibition may, on account of the specific features associated with the provision of games of chance on the internet, be regarded as justified by the objective of combating fraud and crime.’
After losing an earlier stage of the legal fight last December, Ladbrokes' managing director of remote betting and gaming, John O'Reilly, urged the judges to ‘uphold principles of free and fair competition across borders as there is no logic in the fact that the Dutch monopoly could freely compete against us in the UK but we are prevented from accepting bets from any Dutch resident that finds us on the internet.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1283947/Online-gambling-sites-banned-EU-bars-Ladbrokes-taking-Dutch-bets.html
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