Sweden Moving to Open Online Gaming Market

 
Sweden's Internet gambling market may be opened this year, thus bringing Stockholm into line with the rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the European Commission. 
 
According to sources in Sweden, the government may propose a new gambling law by this summer that would replace the existing legislation which grants Svenska Spel, a government-owned firm, a gambling monopoly.
 
Firms such as Ladbrokes and Unibet have been lobbying for a decade for the chance to compete in Sweden’s online betting market.
 
Sweden’s Finance Minister Anders Borg and Secretary of State Per Jansson are working to craft a proposal for the new law that would account for the social considerations of liberalizing the gaming market.
 
On Wednesday the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, called on the governments of Denmark, Finland and Hungary to change laws that barred foreign gambling firms from doing business in their countries. This followed a ruling by the ECJ that gambling monopolies had no place in a modern Europe.

A number of gambling companies, including Britain's Ladbrokes, filed complaints with the commission, and with the ECJ.
Changing Monopolies
"Very few European countries have actually legalized Internet gambling other than giving their companies a monopoly," said Joe Kelly, a business law professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo. "Now this is going to change."

According to the commission, the rules set by Denmark, Finland and Hungary in particular "have not been shown to be necessary, proportionate and non-discriminatory." Those countries now have two months to respond to the charges.

The European Commission had put Italy, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland on notice in April 2006 for allowing state lotteries to offer online sports betting, while barring rivals from the business, experts noted.

Shares in Ladbrokes, which has brought lawsuits against several European countries, were trading 0.7 percent higher, at 411.5 pence, or $8.11, on Thursday.

Online gambling behemoth PartyGaming was up 3.9 percent, at 46.75 pence, or 92 cents, and colleague Sportingbet was up 2.7 percent, at 65.75 pence, or $1.30.

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