Since March 23, the European commission have started a European debate for the future of internet gambling.
The address of the public debate is
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/con ... ing_en.htm
and the deadline is the 31st of July 2011.
It is important because the conclusions are expected to form the basis of legislation in the member states in the future.
The progress of the debate is not however without problems and those problems should become known.
First problem is that the questionnaire was too much in favour of the «monopoly companies», the way it was structured. Essentially there was nothing for the consumer !
We had to make use of the box «any other observations» to write something !
However in a later visit to the consultation’s webpage we noticed that this was
somewhat changed and it was not as one sided as it was in the beginning.
The other problem concerns the publication of the depositions made by the members of the public.
While the consultation page says «let’s discuss» and further down «the depositions made by members of the public will be published», none has been
published so far (from 23 March till now !).
An unofficial source gave a probable explanation of this mystery, saying that the depositions shall be published after the end of the debate and not during it.
This however has n’t been verified by Brussels (or when publicizing will start).
If, in the event, this is true, it is a kind of consulatation in camera, behind closed doors that is. We asked a prominent lawyer about this and he made the following comment:
“If a judge decrees the proceedings of a trial to be held in camera, he may
have some quite valid reasons for doing it.
But whatever the case may be, this always tends to favour somewhat the less popular side of the trial. In the eyes of the public opinion the less popular side is usually that of the accused, but there are exceptions, depending on the exact nature of the case.”
While further explanations from Brussels are being awaited, we publish the content of our own deposition (made by the Greek horse racing portal cosmicway.net). You can read this here:
http://www.cosmicway.net/online_gamblin ... ire_en.pdf
About other depositions, if and when they appear in the European commission’s website (see previous link).
It is obvious that Brussels are being pressurized by the monopolies to hold a «monkey debate» and subsequently declare a «monkey conclusion».
At the same time it is certain that there are reactions to it and from what we gather there is at this point in time a mini-consultation inside the consultation concerning what to do next !
There is no need to add that your participation is essential, if you are on the same side of tha barricades as we.
At the same time as the consultation in Brussels is taking place, the Greek portal cosmicway.net has started an effort using pagebook, targetting the Greek community. The facebook page is called «fairbet» and is located here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Fairbe ... 0181596523
It’ too fresh and still in formation stage.
In this page you can submit comments and you could also give us likes, so we can show strength of numbers.
We consider the right2bet organization (http://www.right2bet.com) as the umbrella organization of European consumers, but we also encourage the people of the various European nations to start their own local efforts, in the local language.
The facebook project is a daring effort, but things are on the move and we could n’t wait more. We always supported that such an effort is the job of the big names in the industry, so it reaches high view numbers quickly. This did not happen so we started it ourselves. Any help is of course welcome.
This content is being posted to Greek and English language sports-betting related forums, of whom we are kindly requesting to allow its publication.
The forums we publish are to be displayed in our forum:
http://cosmic.forumup.org/viewtopic.php ... rum=cosmic
The address of the public debate is
http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/con ... ing_en.htm
and the deadline is the 31st of July 2011.
It is important because the conclusions are expected to form the basis of legislation in the member states in the future.
The progress of the debate is not however without problems and those problems should become known.
First problem is that the questionnaire was too much in favour of the «monopoly companies», the way it was structured. Essentially there was nothing for the consumer !
We had to make use of the box «any other observations» to write something !
However in a later visit to the consultation’s webpage we noticed that this was
somewhat changed and it was not as one sided as it was in the beginning.
The other problem concerns the publication of the depositions made by the members of the public.
While the consultation page says «let’s discuss» and further down «the depositions made by members of the public will be published», none has been
published so far (from 23 March till now !).
An unofficial source gave a probable explanation of this mystery, saying that the depositions shall be published after the end of the debate and not during it.
This however has n’t been verified by Brussels (or when publicizing will start).
If, in the event, this is true, it is a kind of consulatation in camera, behind closed doors that is. We asked a prominent lawyer about this and he made the following comment:
“If a judge decrees the proceedings of a trial to be held in camera, he may
have some quite valid reasons for doing it.
But whatever the case may be, this always tends to favour somewhat the less popular side of the trial. In the eyes of the public opinion the less popular side is usually that of the accused, but there are exceptions, depending on the exact nature of the case.”
While further explanations from Brussels are being awaited, we publish the content of our own deposition (made by the Greek horse racing portal cosmicway.net). You can read this here:
http://www.cosmicway.net/online_gamblin ... ire_en.pdf
About other depositions, if and when they appear in the European commission’s website (see previous link).
It is obvious that Brussels are being pressurized by the monopolies to hold a «monkey debate» and subsequently declare a «monkey conclusion».
At the same time it is certain that there are reactions to it and from what we gather there is at this point in time a mini-consultation inside the consultation concerning what to do next !
There is no need to add that your participation is essential, if you are on the same side of tha barricades as we.
At the same time as the consultation in Brussels is taking place, the Greek portal cosmicway.net has started an effort using pagebook, targetting the Greek community. The facebook page is called «fairbet» and is located here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Fairbe ... 0181596523
It’ too fresh and still in formation stage.
In this page you can submit comments and you could also give us likes, so we can show strength of numbers.
We consider the right2bet organization (http://www.right2bet.com) as the umbrella organization of European consumers, but we also encourage the people of the various European nations to start their own local efforts, in the local language.
The facebook project is a daring effort, but things are on the move and we could n’t wait more. We always supported that such an effort is the job of the big names in the industry, so it reaches high view numbers quickly. This did not happen so we started it ourselves. Any help is of course welcome.
This content is being posted to Greek and English language sports-betting related forums, of whom we are kindly requesting to allow its publication.
The forums we publish are to be displayed in our forum:
http://cosmic.forumup.org/viewtopic.php ... rum=cosmic
