European Lotteries (EL), the European umbrella organization for national lotteries operating gambling, urges the EU Council to exclude the explicit mention of online gambling and betting services from the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The European Organization of National Lotteries has sent a request to the EU Council calling for the exclusion of online gambling and betting services from the Digital Services Act (DSA), a legislative proposal aimed at amending the rules governing online services. The organization supports the right of states as individuals, based on the public interest, to establish their own restrictions on gambling.
The DSA’s legislative proposal seeks to amend the rules governing online services enshrined in Directive 2000/31, the “e-commerce directive”, as these rules are now more than 20 years old. The proposal is perceived as an important update on how the EU Internet will be regulated in the future.
The European Commission introduced the DSA legislative proposal in December 2020 and it is currently being discussed by the Member States in the Council and the European Parliament. Both institutions must first reach their position on the European Commission’s proposal before starting negotiations on the final version of the legislative text.
Although both institutions were expected to reach a position by the end of 2021, this now seems unlikely due to disagreements between legislators on certain issues.
In an open letter, he called on the representatives of the EU Member States to exclude the mention of services in the context of the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services within the European Union.
“Applicable national laws should comply with Union law, in particular including the provisions of the Charter and the Treaty on the freedom to establish and provide services in the Union, in particular as regards online gambling and betting services,” the organization said. disturbing passage.
The organization considers that the specific reference to “especially with regard to online gambling and better services” to “wrongly imply” that national regulations on illegal content in the gambling sector are often not in line with EU law.
“While there are certain restrictions on the freedom to provide online gambling services in most Member States, these national laws are aimed at combating crime and fraud and protecting consumers in a way that meets the requirements of the case law of the EU Court of Justice,” he also added.
The organization’s secretary-general, Arjan van ‘t Veer, says the explicit mention of online gambling and betting services in that particular context is “out of place and should therefore be deleted “. He considers that it does not take into account “all relevant case law” of the EU Court of Justice and the “highly nuanced approach” of the gambling sector due to its specific nature.
As the court has previously confirmed that restrictions in the gambling sector are justified on grounds of public policy, security, health, and interest, failure to recognize this means “risking increased activities of illegal gambling operators”, which harms people. and society as a whole.
“European Lotteries, therefore, urges that the explicit mention of online gambling and betting services be excluded from the Digital Services Act in the context of the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide services,” said van ‘t Veer.
In its initial proposal, the European Commission emphasized that the DSA would be without prejudice to the e-Commerce Directive and that it is based on the provisions set out therein. This implies that the exclusion of gambling activities, as stipulated in the e-commerce Directive, would continue to apply in the framework of the DSA, according to European Lotteries.
Consequently, the organization now considers it “very unclear” why “online gambling and betting services” would have an explicit reference in recital 29 of the final DSA text on the application of the principles of free movement, “especially when there is no other sector is mentioned. “
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