http://pokerfuse.com/news/law-and-re...ws+Articles%29

Groundbreaking?

what does it mean?

chess pieces are moving

The EU will collapse before this is resolved.

Creating a common currency without creating a common debt will lead to economic and then political collapse (I set the break-up over under at two years).

^
politards forum on the left and down a bit

and on the subject of politarding the USA was found guilty by the WTO of breaching trade agreement re blocking gambling sites in Antigua a decade ago, nothing happened then and nothing will happen here.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-1150_en.htm

seems like great news

Not intended as anything anti-European, merely a statement that this will not be an issue for Swedish players as I envisage the EU breaking up (for reason stated) before this matter is ever determined.

Oh it will take a year or two but the ECJ will rule on the legality of their regulation. Then Sweden will have a year or two to change things to become compliant. Its slow and inefficient but it will grind on, a bit quicker now that it is the Commission not private firms taking th case up as their's get priority.

Meanwhile it is good news for Swedish players wanting to play on sites with a UK licence as it gives the firms a legal case for arguing that serving Swedish players is legal and the Swedish rules are not legal.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Sweden is actually on to something here?

And they are right and the rest of the world is wrong?

Maybe its just me.

Didn't the ECJ rule a few years ago that member states can restrict the free market for social reasons? The implication seems to be that Sweden (or Italy at the time) has the right to ban poker or regulate it as they see fit but if they allow unrestricted access they need to do it within the single market and allow players and providers from the whole EU.

Yes, they can impose regulation, controls and limits in order to protect the vulnerable. What they can't do is what Sweden does and use the rules to protect a state monopoly.

The rules need to be consistently applied and relate to protection of people, not protection for Svenska Spel.

Oh another person offering a laughably simplistic explanation for a unfathomably complicated situation. With the certainty in your predictions you sound like a 90s investment banker. Try regurgitating your favourite political columnist a bit better.

I'll take a prop bet for charity on it if you like.

My prediction ECJ rules against Swedish monopoly within 2 years. The alternative I was "simplistically" arguing against was that "nothing" would happen.

It is indeed complicated, I have read every ECJ ruling on gambling matters plus the full EU policy document. Hundreds and hundreds of pages of complex stuff. I doubt any political columnist has that background info or the interest to write on this.

So Johnny, if you don't like my dumb explanation of the process and likely future events why don't you park your agression for a moment and explain what you think this complicated situation is about, how events will unfold or at least their significance and what you base that opinion on.

Richas wouldnt worry everyone knows Sweden will get ruled against except that idiot.

The law clearly says "question are suitable and necessary"

and i think thats where sweden have come un-stuck. Sure it may be suitable and so on... but that doesnt mean its necessary.

And clearly that sentence says it must me both suitable AND necessary.

So this will get turned over and hopefully they will then go after France Spain and Italy. Theyre just corrupt completely ignoring EU laws. And arguing prevention of fraud is irrelevant too becuase its not stopping anyone within Sweden committing fraud

Yes, its just you.

The EU is for an open market within Europe so Sweden closing off its borders is pretty much illegal.

The consistency requirement is their big problem. The case started back in 2004 and Ladbrokes basically won in 2007, since then the Swedes have talked about change but the only real change has been increased marketing from their state monopoly to compete with the foreign firms which given protecting the state monopoly rather than consistent and necessary consumer protection was what they lost on....now Sweden is talking about accelerating their licencing system to comply but we'll see.

Do you think there's any chance the court (or the Commission) will push for harmonizing licensing requirements among member countries and merging player pools?

Not this decade. It is though what the various regulators I have engaged with are supportive of. They see that common EU standards make sense to avoid duplication/cost and do get that international player pools are important to poker.

The EU as a whole is keen on common minimum standards, well the parliament and commission anyway what they are nt so keen on is dictatig to national governments about additional protections. The European trade bodies are of course keener on standardisation and international pools and they can lobby effectively.

The real hope is that the UK model looks to be on track and doing well, it offers national taxes, an open market and soon world leading protection (ie the now certain centralised self exclusion). That example delivers and places like Italy will get it.

But in context, the UK model needs to build on this "hope" and set a clear precedent with regards to collaborative aggressive criminal prosecution of colluders and bot rings. If this is not worked towards, then the UK s not in the right place, whereas from an integrity perspective and ethical perspective - its looks like to me - Swedens is in the right place from a moral fibre perspective. But the execution might be sucky.

Like, I've said though, maybe thats just me.

plzplzplzplzplzplzp don't let them get rid of SVS poker

I agree. They need to step up and do the job properly and set about prosecuting crims, not just UK crims but anyone cheating UK players.

Fortunately it looks like they are starting t get that.

uhhuh, otherwise no point being a gambling friendly country when your own peoples money just oozes out of the economy via what is effectively unpunished theft.

Happy to be bumping a 4-year old thread, but Sweden are regulating their market come 1 jan 2019. And so far it does not look promising for Swedish poker players, not many pokersites have yet applied for license...

? I see almost all sites swedes play online poker on, on that list...