Representatives from European casino, lotteries and pari-mutuel associations have publicly supported a controversial MEP report on online gambling likely to be formally adopted by the European parliament next week. The report’s author also countered charges of a perceived pro-state monopoly bias at a seminar in Brussels yesterday, as lobbying surrounding the report continues to intensify.

As incoming European Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier gave a broadly neutral pledge to MEPs that he would seek coherent EU rules on gambling, both state and private interests moved quickly to claim his plans supported their cause.

A controversial MEP report on online gambling, which was recently accused of being severely prejudiced against the legitimacy of the industry by a senior figure at the UK’s Gambling Commission, was formally adopted by an EU Internal Market committee yesterday ahead of a full vote in the European Parliament in early March.

The remote gambling sector suffered a resounding defeat yesterday when MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting a report seen to be firmly against the accelerated development of cross-border online gambling in Europe. But while the report expresses broad consumer protection concerns regarding online gambling, its policy implications are far from clear.

European Parliament last week saw MEPs raise concern at possible deregulation of the gambling market, but observers predict that the ECJ will propel the gambling debate in the short term.

GamblingCompliance spoke to Linas Sesickas, legal counsel to the National Gambling and Gaming Business Association, about the Lithuanian gaming sector’s growing frustrations at the slow pace of regulatory reform in the country.

In part two of an exclusive interview with GamblingCompliance, Tjeerd Veenstra, legal director of European Lotteries, casts doubt on presumptions that a liberalisation of the gambling sector throughout Europe will occur within the near future and theorises that the European lottery and betting markets are therefore currently overvalued.

European Commission president José Manuel Barroso has confirmed that Michel Barnier, France’s former agriculture minister, is to replace Irishman Charlie McCreevy as European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services.

The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) has moved to denounce the European Parliament’s expected formal adoption of a controversial report written by a Danish MEP that suggests a link between the rise of online gambling and increased corruption in sport.

One year after the Isle of Man overhauled its regulatory regime, GamblingCompliance met up with Garth Kimber, head of e-gaming development at the Isle of Man’s department of trade and industry, during a traditionally busy online industry gathering last week in Barcelona.