From Gaming Alerts on Tuesday, February 16, 2010:
SPAIN -- The EU was originally created to assist economic growth and trade amongst member nations, letting them form a single market which has efficiencies which are unavailable to countries facing tariffs and restrictions. However, online gambling has proven to be a service that lots of EU member countries have found difficult to regulate consistently with the European Treaty, particularly Spain with their new gambling laws.
The EU requires even competitive conditions, with members treating each other’s commerce as their own without domestic discrimination. However, Spain’s gambling taxes gives breaks to players that win at lotteries and other gaming based inside the country.
Foreign operators which offer similar gambling games will require their players to pay Spain’s full slate of taxes, incentivizing players to gamble at domestic sites.
However, Spanish officials say that the tax exemption is only applicable to charitable organisations and/or events. The European Court of Justice has ruled that overseas based companies with charitable links should also be given the same deal.
This means that Spain must now reconsider its gambling laws else risk infringement charges from the European Court. The amount of nations that are risking infringement penalties is growing as France, Germany and Italy are all under investigation for applying inconsistent rules to the requirements stated by the EU.
