In mid-January 2016, a new initiative in the area of gambling policy by the Green coalition party in Schleswig-Holstein caught attention. A press release published by the parliamentary party of the Green party in the SH state parliament advocates the abolition of the ineffective ban on online gambling, asking all federal states to take up on a more realistic regulation of gambling using the model from the federal state of Hesse.

The European Commission has been challenged by the Remote Gambling Association to intervene to prevent the Greek Government’s plan to extend OPAP’s land based monopoly to online gambling products. The Greek Government has notified the European Commission that it will amend its existing gambling law so that OPAP’s offline monopoly on gambling products is extended to online products…

Denmark submitted in July a draft law to the European Commission with provisions to end the gambling monopoly and to liberalise the sports betting and online casino game market. After years of uncertainty, still-stand and legal disputes the Danish Government announced in April 2009 plans to end the gambling monopoly held by the State-owned organisation, Danske Spil, and to proceed with plans to liberalise parts of the gambling market…

Athens (Reuters) – UK-based fixed-odds betting company Stanleybet said on Friday a court ordered its outlet in Athens to be shut again while a higher tribunal considered its right to compete with Greek gambling monopoly OPAP. Stanleybet opened a store in the Greek capital and one in the northern city of Thessaloniki late last year, but Greek authorities shut them down for not having an operating licence and for violating a law that forbids online betting.

The Progress Party, Norway’s second largest political party with 38 parliamentary seats and the largest in terms of popular support, has vowed to open the country’s gaming market to private operators if it comes to power in next year’s general election. Siv Jensen, Party Chairman, said that opening the gaming market in Norway represented the best way to regulate gambling.

On 23rd October 2006 the Higher Regional Court Düsseldorf approved all of the major points of a decision of the German Federal Cartel Office of 23rd August 2006. As a consequence, the German state-run lottery companies will now be obliged to accept lottery tickets from private intermediaries. The court pointed out that the new state treaty on lotteries, which the German Länder is drafting at the moment, will also have to comply with European cartel law. The German monopolists announced that they intend to appeal the decision to the Federal Court of Justice.