Francois Peglau - Lawyer
GamblingCompliance Ltd.
7th Floor - Capital Tower
91 Waterloo Road
- SE1 8RT
United Kingdom
Francois is a lawyer specialized in international taxation with 8 years in experience in this area. Before coming to the United Kingdom, he worked in BDO and Deloitte & Touche Peru´s office, working as a tax manager in this last company.
Presently, he is studying a Master in Law and Taxation in London School of Economics. Francois is responsible of researching and writing regulatory content in the site related to taxation and Latin American gambling markets.
While Ecuador's gaming industry has grown substantially in the last five years, authorities continue to struggle to tackle illegal gambling operators.
Italy has recently issued regulations to allow for the introduction of VLT machines, cash internet poker, new scratchcard lotteries and online casino games. In 2009 gaming companies operating in Italy collected €53bn in bets.
The Greek gaming market is highly lucrative yet highly restricted, a combination which has seen the jurisdiction become the arena for high profile disputes between the state monopoly and various online operators.
Cyprus has a very restrictive regulation towards certain gambling activities. Casinos and slot machines are banned, while other activities such as bingo, lottery, sports betting collective bets and horse race betting are allowed as long as they are conducted by a limited number of authorised land-based operators.
Despite the undoubted potential of the Brazilian market, only lottery games and race horse betting are legal in Brazil. However, this framework could change in the near future as a bill that will legalize bingo and electronic bingo machines will be voted on soon.
After the crackdown of illegal operators in Peru, gambling revenues have increased to US$452m for 2009.
With Evo Morales’ decisive re-election victory in December 2009, the stalled legislative attempts to amend Bolivia’s gaming regulatory framework can now be resumed.
Boasting the third largest Spanish-speaking gaming market in the world, Argentina is regarded as a key market for international gambling operators seeking to break into South America.
In an exclusive interview with GamblingCompliance, Peru’s chief gambling regulator says Peru may soon look to export its new system of controls over slot machines to other countries in the region, while possibly turning its domestic attentions to online casino gambling.
Gambling operators in Spain collected €32bn in 2008, making Spain one of the biggest markets in Europe. However, further growth in the online market has been delayed as the government has been reluctant in regulating this activity at a national level.
