EU: CEN TF456 standardisation online gambling commences its work and EL participates in discussions on illegal platforms and Subsidiarity

In April 2018, following long consultations with stakeholders, the European Commission mandated the European Standardisation Committee CEN to draft a standard for a list of criteria for reporting to the regulators for online gambling. The future standard is to “determine core data for reporting purposes that could be common across the Member States.” The future standard will be voluntary for Member States and their regulators to adopt. French standardisation body AFNOR leads the work and provides the Secretariat to the Technical Committee on reporting on online gambling which was created specifically for that purpose. The work of the TF456 is chaired by Claire Pinson, Head of European and International Affairs of the French regulator for online gambling ARJEL.

‘Mirror national technical committees’ in the individual countries follow the discussion at the European level inside CEN in parallel. These mirror technical committees are hosted by the respective national standardisation body. The national mirror technical committees also send delegates to the European-level discussions within CEN. EL members can participate in the discussions at national level within the mirror technical committee of their country. At the European level, EL is one of the stakeholder associations that participate in the meetings as a Liaison Organisation, as are the EGBA (European Gaming and Betting Association, an association of commercial gambling operators) and the Gaming Standards Alliance, GSA Europe.

The new Technical Committee 456 ‘Reporting in support of online gambling supervision’ has met in Brussels on 29 June. The meeting was attended by representatives of the mirror national technical committees – up to three delegates per mirror committee can participate – and by the Liaison Organisations. The next meeting is set for 15 November 2018, again in Brussels. One of the important decisions ahead is the appointment of the expert that will be the project leader for the drafting of the standard.

Also at European level, the discussion on illegal content online continues. Before the summer, in June 2018, EL participated in the new consultation by the European Commission on measures to further improve the effectiveness of the fight against illegal content online. In its contribution, EL shared thoughts about illegal gambling and noted how in order to fight illegal gambling successfully, loyal cooperation between the authorities of Member States of the European Union is needed.

EL also contributed to the work of the special Taskforce on Subsidiarity. The taskforce subsidiarity was set up by European Commission President Juncker and is presided by Vice-President Timmermans. Its aim is to, notably, make recommendations on how to better apply the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The letter from our Secretary General Arjan van ‘t Veer stresses how EL fully supports the continued application of the principle of subsidiarity in the gambling sector and urges the Task force to follow this opinion.

View all the contributions from organisations here.

EL members wishing to obtain further information on these dossiers can contact the EL Deputy Secretary General at jutta.buyse@european-lotteries.eu