Exclusive: Balkan states to sign egaming MoU
Former Yugoslav states to work together in fight against unlicensed operators.
The former Yugoslav countries of Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in an attempt to combat illegal gambling, eGaming Review has learned.
The regulatory bodies of the five countries are likely to sign the agreement at a regulatory conference to be held in May, and will look to collaborate on effective methods of banning unlicensed operators.
Mirjana Acimovic, president of the Serbian gaming association JAKTA told eGR that each country had experienced similar problems with illegal gambling, with Slovenian gambling regulators first airing the idea of working together at the countries’ first gaming conference in 2010.
“The Serbian situation is similar in all these countries, and all are pursuing similar initiatives. We are all vulnerable to, and very frustrated by illegitimate operators, a lack of harmonisation, control and player protection,” Acimovic explained.
The MoU follows the news earlier this week that the Serbian Gambling Board, supported by the Ministry of Finance, had ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to make a total of 70 operators’ sites inaccessible to Serbian players. The list included the likes of William Hill, Ladbrokes, bwin and 888.
Acimovic added that the measures being taken were compliant with a ruling by the European Commission’s communication on ecommerce and online services, adopted on 11 January this year. She revealed that IP blocking will be followed by blocking transactions to and from unlicensed sites.
However, she added that methods of prevention such as IP blocking had previously proved ineffective, highlighting the need for increased cooperation with other regulators: Online gambling and betting still presents considerable challenges and we recognise that the enforcement of regulation is rendered difficult by several factors.
“That is raising the need for enhanced administrative cooperation between all national authorities or for other types of action. Like all countries in Europe we will focus on administrative cooperation, consumer protection and the development of a legal market,” she said.
Despite the move to stop the operations of the majority of European gaming companies, Acimovic claimed that a regulated Serbian market could flourish, with the German gaming group Merkur, which signed a JV with Playtech in January, and Austrian software developer Apex joining JAKTA in the past few months.