EJC upholds Swedish court ruling against gambling ads

A recent ruling by the European court of Justice means that Sweden can restrict the promotion of online gambling sites. Of course, for those who wish to see the full legalisation of online gambling this is a considerable setback. However, the same ruling also said that the Swedish Government may not impose stricter sanctions on online gambling as long as it is organised outside of Sweden. 

The case saw the Swedish Government go against the editors and publishers of the Swedish newspapers, Aftonbladet and Expressen. Both newspapers ran adverts for online sports betting in their sports pages in 2004, the adverts were for companies based outside of Sweden. The Swedish courts ruled these adverts illegal and the publishers were fined 50,000 Swedish crowns. The ruling was appealed and the case referred to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, the ECJ then upheld the Swedish ruling citing public order as their grounds. 

The ECJ acknowledged that Sweden prohibits the promotion of unlicensed gambling inside Sweden as well as legal gambling in other EU member countries. The court recognised these restrictions were acceptable by EU law due to public health or public security, so long as the fines imposed are proportional to the offense. The ECJ did issue a warning that if these fines were higher in Sweden than other EU countries then this would be against EU law as it is considered discriminatory. 

The secretary of the European Gaming and Betting Association said that, "It is up to the legislator to embrace the reality of online gaming and betting in Europe. Italy, France and the UK have introduced online gaming legislation and Denmark is set to follow suit in 2011."

At the moment the European Lotteries represents forty national lottery monopolies. The president of the European Lotteries, Friedrich Stickler said, "The court has given full backing to the gambling model we stand for, a model from which the whole of society benefits."