Ladbrokes goes to court against the Norwegian government

Ladbrokes has today appealed against the rejection of its application for a betting license to allow it to trade in Norway; it was originally turned down in October 2004. The refusal had led Ladbrokes to initiate legal proceeds against Norway citing it was a breach of EC directives and the EFTA agreement.

John O’Reilly Ladbrokes’ Managing Director of Remote Betting and Gaming said “We are appealing the judgment because the court’s assessment of the evidence doesn’t relate directly to our case. Vital aspects in the EFTA-law court judgment of May 2007 have not been taken into consideration, and the judgment is solely built on the national “slot machine case” of March 2007 which is not relevant to our application. The monopoly laws in Norway conflict with the EU Treaty, particularly with regard to the principles of freedom of establishment and the free movement of services. We continue to challenge for our right to be regulated in Norway and to provide free and fair competition to the monopoly.”

The difficulty that Ladbrokes is having with the Norwegian government concerning gambling monopolies in an EC country has also been mirrored by the recent troubles StanleyBet has had with the Greek Government and OPAP.

Stanleybet’s Greek outlets subject to police raid

The Greek Police authority has raided the Athens outlet of Stanleybet the UK based sports betting group. The shop had been opened for just over a week in a direct challenge to the state gambling operator OPAP, who have had a monopoly in Greece since 1996.

Following a complaint made by OPAP Greek police raided the outlet which resulted in the confiscation of equipment and money and the arrest of 2 employees who were both subsequently released. The Stanleybet outlet according to police had “conducted illegal betting…without a permit from the appropriate authorities…aiming to make monetary gain at the expense of the Greek state.” This was dismissed by Stanleybet who say they are adhering to their legal right to provide gambling services in the European Union under E.U. law and prior European Court of Justice Rulings.

Stanleybet opens Greek Betting Shops

The UK and Malta based Stanleybet International has today opened its first branches in Greece, one branch in Athens and a second in Thessaloniki. The Greek market is currently dominated by OPAP who have maintained a monopoly in Greece and have promised to try and uphold this position. OPAP is the largest publicly trading gambling company in Europe and it had paid the Greek government in 2001 for a license that gave it the right to be the country’s sole gambling service until 2020

In February of this year pressure was applied on the Greek government by the European Commission to liberalise its gambling market and allow other companies to be able to trade as its current law regarding gambling was not parallel with European law.