Danish Gambling Authority reviewed its position
Written On 5/10/11 By Recentpoker.com staff writer Emily Apontif :
Review of the system undertaken by DGA
The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) has reviewed its position on the location of parts of licensee's "gambling systems" being outside its borders under the proviso that it is able to sufficiently oversee or supervise the system.
The revised clause reads: “In special cases, the Danish Gaming Authority may allow part of the licensee’s gambling system to be located in a country that is not covered by a bilateral supervision agreement in accordance with subsection 2 if supervision by the Danish Gaming Authority of this part of the gambling system can be conducted in a satisfactory manner.”
A senior technical adviser at the DGA, Kristian Wind said that "the official list of countries and jurisdictions to which this would apply has yet to be made official", but didn't exclude the possibility that those territories may include where those gaming companies already operate. The DGA is reportedly in discussions with various national regulators on the topic reports EGR Magazine.
“We played out various scenarios and looked at where various companies were situated today and what effect this would have on them and decided that some companies would not be able to operate in Denmark if we only allowed their systems to be located within Denmark,” Wind said.
The European Commission currently has two "unfair competition" complaints before it which were initiated by the Danish slot machine association and land-based operator the Royal Casino in Aarhus on the proposed tax rate of 20 percent on gross win which will apply to online gaming as opposed to the 41 percent that terrestrial operators pay.
April Carr, senior associate in the EU & Competition Group at lawyers Olswang, said at the time: “It is difficult to estimate how long the Commission will take to deal with this complaint because there is no applicable deadline. It could well take a matter of months if the Commission takes the allegations seriously.”
Optimistically, the DGA has said it hopes to receive word on the proposal from the European Commission before August in order to complete its review.
Only then, if successful, the regulation would proceed with the market opening up to foreign operators.
