DCMS Response -- The next phase in the implementation of the England's new Gambling Bill will be revealed on Monday as the Department of Culture, Media and Sport publishes its response to the joint scrutiny committee that evaluated the proposed bill. Gambling minister Andrew McIntosh has indicated that around 100 of the committee's 139 recommendations may have been accepted, but at the end of May, many British media sources reported that DCMS secretary Tessa Jowell planned to reject the committee's recommendations to treat betting exchanges differently than other betting sites.
Opinion -- Advocate General Stix-Hackl of the European Court of Justice delivered her opinion Tuesday on four cases involving the use and protection of databases. William Hill, the British Horseracing Board, Oy Veikkaus, Fixtures Marketing, Svenska Spel and OPAP (Organismos prognostikon agonon podosfairou) were all parties to at least one of the four cases. The opinion of the advocate general is that the maker of a database has a right to protection under the database directive, even when that database was created mainly for the purpose of organizing football fixtures or horseracing. Bookmakers' use of that data is therefore prohibited, even if they obtain the information from independent sources, such as newspapers or the Internet. The ruling is not final; it is only an opinion. The final judgment should be rendered by the European Court of Justice sometime next year. The court usually follows the opinion of the Advocate General.
Survey Says -- IGGBA (Interactive Gaming, Gambling and Betting Association), a representational body for the European I-gaming industry, has 47 members, has compiled the results of a survey distributed to attendees of its recent conference. The organization says that more than 60 percent of respondents are fearful that Britain's new Gambling Bill will not pass in 2004 because it is being slowed down by traditional casino issues. Sixty-two percent of respondents would rather see a country-of-origin approach to licensing remote gambling operators than a harmonization of I-gaming laws. More than 60 percent replied that a tax rate greater than 5 percent would repel operators away fro the United Kingdom.