William Hill Spanish Partner Calls for Online Gambling Ban - 04-09-08 |
April 9 - William Hill recently entered into a joint venture with
Victoria Apuestas, a Spanish gambling company, to serve the Madrid region's
sports betting market. Victoria Apuestas was the first operator to be granted a
license for its gambling activities by the Madrid Autonomous Region and is thus
far the only company to hold one.
Last week, the Managing Director of Victoria Apuestas, Jaime Estallella
called for authorities to block online companies who are operating within the
Madrid region and who are doing so without a license. Estallella's comments came
as an attempt to protect the advantage that his company have over others by
operating with its new license.
However, Ignacio Gonzalez, the Vice President of the Madrid Autonomous
Region, said in response that if authorities did indeed start to deal with the
problem of online gambling within the area, Victoria Apuestas would also be
affected as its license applied to offline gambling only. He explained that
there was no argument with the fact that sports betting companies needed to
acquire a license to operate with the region, but he said: "This legislation
however does not address the issue of transacting bets via the internet."
Gonzalez did, however, agree with Estallella's assessment that the problem of
tax evasion should be addressed. The Spanish online betting market was worth
650-million Euros last year, and analysts predict that these numbers could rise
to as much as 1-billion Euros in 2008.
Ian Spearing, speaking for William Hill, said: "Spain has regulations that
work regarding licensing, as we could see last week. It obviously does not work
at the moment online. We believe that the Spanish authorities should look at
regulating online gaming in Spain, but on a national rather than on a regional
basis. From an EU point of view, William Hill supports an open market where
regulated companies can freely compete with each other."
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