EGBA welcomes EU Court of Justice statement on European gambling law
The European Gaming and Betting Association has welcomed the request for proper notification of draft gambling regulations.
Belgium.- The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has welcomed a statement by the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) on international gambling law. The court has clarified that EU members should submit all proposed changes in technical regulations for gambling services, including marketing and gambling encouragement, to the European Commission (EC).
The court has said that notification of changes should be submitted through the Technical Regulation Information System (TRIS) procedure. It warned that failure to comply would make new gambling regulations unenforceable against providers, which could lead to confusion for gambling regulators, operators and customers.
The statement follows a legal dispute between the Lithuanian gambling regulator and Unigames. The regulator fined Unigames €12,700 in 2022 for allegedly displaying messages that encourage gambling, in breach of Lithuania’s strict rules against gambling adverts. However, Unigames appealed against the decision, arguing that correct procedure was not followed for the implementation of the rules. The CJEU has adopted a “No Opinion” decision on the case.
Responding to the CJEU’s statement, EGBA secretary general Maarten Haijer said: “Proper notification of draft gambling regulations to the European Commission is essential for good policy making and to allow for any proposed changes to national gambling frameworks to be scrutinised for their compatibility with EU law.
“The TRIS notification procedure facilitates transparency and allows for potential EU law compatibility issues to be identified before national regulations take effect. An effective TRIS procedure also relies on the European Commission to actively scrutinise all incoming notifications, which it has not been doing consistently in recent years.
“We’re confident, however, that the new Commission’s emphasis on the enforcement of EU law will lead to it stepping up its efforts to ensure draft national gambling laws are adequately scrutinised for their compatibility with EU law.”
Meanwhile, the EGBA has hailed the results of the second monitoring assessment of its pan-European responsible advertising code for online gambling advertising. Undertaken by the independent Brussels-based European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA), an association that represents European self-regulatory organisations for advertising, this second report focused on measures for protecting minors.
The monitoring exercise, which concluded in December 2024, assessed 120 advertisements from EGBA members across multiple platforms including television, YouTube, websites and social media channels in four selected markets: Greece, Spain, Romania and the UK. Self-regulatory organisations (SROs) in these markets assessed the compliance of the advertisements with the EGBA code and national regulatory and self-regulatory requirements, focusing particularly on content moderation, managing exposure of minors, and safeguards against minors’ access to gambling content online.
