/ Editor / 01 February 2008 / Leave a comment

BANSTABATION has accounted for online poker in Germany.

But is it right? The European Union's Internal market commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, has given Germany two months to respond to an official request for information explaining its new law banning all online gambling.

He and his aides want to see if the ban is in breech of the EU treaty, specifically the free movement of services. Is Germany's approach to online betting compliant with Article 49 of the EC Treaty?

The situation in Germany is ambiguous. Over there, Germans can bet on horse racing over the internet. But they cannot place poker bets online. Is that a consistent position?

Over in Sweden, legislation bans online poker offered by operators from other member states. So much for a common market. Does this make Sweden's position discriminatory?

Poker is big money in Sweden. And not all of it is going to the state.

Swedish taxmen and women have been investigating online poker players and gaming affiliates.

As reported, "the total value of undeclared income is estimated at SEK419.9 million (€44.5 million), of which SEK275.6 million (€27.3 million) has been attributed to poker skins and affiliates, and a further SEK46.9 million (€5 million) to Swedish poker players".

The authorities are watching. Sweden uses the Xenon web crawler to trawl websites for transactions. Xenon is also used by tax gatherers in the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and the UK.

Of course, in the UK, winnings are not taxed.

Which adds a further layer of confusion to the EU pot...

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Tags: Industry, Legislation