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Belowwe set out the legal status of online gaming in the four biggest European betting regions: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
As you will see, each nation takes a legalize-and-regulate approach to internet sports betting. However, some are much more flexible and liberal with their licensing regime than others, and that seriously impacts the number of legal options available to bettors.
The table below briefly summarizes the situation in every country. The resultant sections provide more detailed descriptions.
COUNTRY IS ONLINE SPORTS BETTING LEGAL? ARE ONLINE BOOKMAKERS REQUIRED TO HAVE A LICENSE? IS IT SMART/SAFE TO USE AN UNLICENSED SITE? DO ONLINE BETTORS HAVE TO PAY TAX ON WINNINGS?
France Yes Yes No Yes. If over $1,500
Germany Yes Sort of Maybe No
Ireland Yes Yes No No, except for»professionals»
Italy Yes Yes No No
Netherlands Yes, but hardly Yes No Yes, but it is withheld by the operator
Spain Yes Yes No Yes, if over $2,500
Sweden Yes Yes Maybe No, so Long as the sportsbook is accredited in EU
France
Online sports gambling is legal but heavily regulated in France. To lawfully offer sports wagers to French residents, a betting sitemust be accredited by the ARJEL (Autorit?? p r??gulation des jeux en ligne, which appropriately translates into»Regulatory Authority for Online Games»).
Considering that the French government places heavy tax burdens on operators, so many online websites register in other authorities and yet still try to offer their services to people in France.
Under the current legislative framework, this can be deemed illegal. Even if an online sportsbook has a permit in a foreign authority, state Gibraltar, it cannot legally offer sports-betting services to the French public with no license in the ARJEL.
This is true in several regions of the planet. On the other hand, the French governments are more proactive in policing it than many, going so far as to block access to certain websites from within France.
[Though] the mere act of placing a bet for an unlicensed sportsbook may not be prohibited under French law… using an unlicensed sportsbook nevertheless includes numerous dangers.
It should be mentioned that, like in the US, the mere act of placing a wager for an unlicensed sportsbook might not be prohibited under French law. The laws tend to target online gambling providers instead of the individual bettors.
However, using an unlicensed sportsbook still includes numerous risks. You cannot be sure that unlicensed sites will stay accessible from within France. The government may take action to block access and efficiently shut-down their existence in the nation at any moment, because it’s operating illegally.
As a result, the safest route for sport bettors in France would be to use a certified sportsbook.
Figuring out which sites are accredited and which are not is straightforward. The ARJEL maintains an updated list of all of the licensees on its site: http://www.arjel.fr/-Liste-des-operateurs-agrees-.html.
The ARJEL maintains an updated listing of all of the licensees on its site.
The website is in French, obviously, but if you are using a web browser like Chrome, then you can easily interpret the page to English. (While the grammar won’t be perfect, you will have the ability to decipher the vital elements.)
If (when?) Your own sports-betting efforts prove fruitful in France, bear in mind that everything over $1,500 must be declared as income and, as such, is taxable. According to rgweek.com, online betting is taxed at around 9%.
Germany
The legal status of online sports betting in Germany is in a state of flux and has been for some time. The German government has long sought to heavily regulate the marketplace as well as in 2012, passed an amended Interstate Treaty on Gambling, which prohibited online gambling (and online gambling in all its forms) except for those provided by the government or licensed by the regulatory authorities. (This law was really a relaxation of an earlier law, which didn’t even allow for licenses and effectively made a state monopoly.)
The new law came under siege nearly as quickly as it came into effect. Importantly, the EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that the law impermissibly restricts online gaming sites based/licensed in different countries from providing their services to Germans.
[T]he EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that [Germany’s online betting law] impermissibly restricts online websites based/licensed from different countries from offering their services to Germans.
The German government reacted by amending the legislation, but only slightly, and said amendment hasn’t come into force. The amended law could simply raise the amount of licenses the government may grant; it wouldn’t offer foreign sportsbooks carte blanche to operate in Germany. It remains to be seen whether such a law — if it ever comes into force — could be deemed an acceptable restriction by the courts.
What Germany is now left with is essentially a crap heap of laws pertaining to online sports betting. The laws on the books need sportsbooks to have a permit to operate legally, but the laws themselves (and the licensing process they create) have been deemed impermissible by the EU courts.
In practice, quite a few foreign-based sports-betting sites continue to function in Germany (meaning that they continue to take German bettors and continue to be accessible from inside Germany’s borders). Unlike in France, in which the authorities have obtained a hands-on method of restricting access to unlicensed online operators, the German authorities doesn’t appear to be actively attempting to stop these foreign sportsbooks from operating in Germany, probably due to the condition of the existing laws.
As the International Comparative Legal Guides’ 2017 paper on Germany states,»[T]he licensing process for… sports gambling licenses… continues to be held incompatible with EU legislation… Criminal proceedings have… rarely been initiated. … German enforcement authorities… have been reluctant to impose gambling law offenses, 1 explanation for this likely being that German gaming regulation has been characterised by legal doubt due to it facing severe criticism in light of EU law for years now.
In connection with sports betting… any enforcement actions brought against sports betting operators in a circumstance where an unlawful de facto monopoly persists (as held to be the case in Germany) is incompatible with EU law.»
[I]n the infrequent cases when [German] authorities do prosecute breaches of gaming legislation, it’s the operator that is held liable, not the bettor.
The paper also notes , in the rare instances once the government do violate breaches of gaming legislation, it is the operator that’s held liable, not the bettor.
The final result is that Germans can feel very safe — by the state authorities, at least when it comes to using online betting sites, whether those are licensed in Germany or elsewhere.
Selecting the Very Best and most-secure sportsbook in Germany doesn’t come down to whether It’s licensed, but will rather be determined by a multitude of additional variables, such as:
A record of timely payments
A reputation for anonymity and security Available and easy-to-use help sections A huge variety of deposit and withdrawal procedures Strong customer service representation
A wide selection of sports markets to bet on.
Regarding taxation, only winnings in the state-run websites are taxed. Due to this disorganized and muddled legal regime that now exists, there does not appear to be any process set up for taxing winnings from private online sportsbooks.
Ireland
Like many European countries, Ireland regulates online sports gambling through a licensing strategy. The Betting Act 2015 is the appropriate law right now, and provides that anyone looking to provide bookmaking or gambling services to people in Ireland must be granted a permit from the Revenue Commissioners, which double as the Irish tax service.
Just like any regulatory strategy, this has benefits and disadvantages for the general people. The fact that sportsbooks need to pay tax and go through the bureaucratic hoops of acquiring a permit leads to things like higher juice on the opposite end.
However, the licensing system also ensures that only legitimate sportsbooks provide their services to Irish residents.
How?
Under the present legal framework, the officers of this company applying for a permit must, inter alia, obtain certificates of personal fitness.
Furthermore, licenses are only granted for a couple of years at one time and, as stated by the ICLG, one of the factors which the Revenue Commissioners believe during renewal applications is if the sportsbook has paid its debts. That is important, as bettors can’t sue sportsbooks for unpaid debts in Ireland, or vice versa. (Gambling debts are generally unenforceable.) The licensing system offers an impetus for sportsbooks to operate on the up-and-up.
Just like most countries, the penalties for unlicensed sports betting fall almost exclusively on the operators. But Irish punters are well-advised to stick to licensed books, nonetheless. If an online gaming website is offering its services to Irish bettors without a license, there will be a regarding reason for this. Either it does not wish to cover the $10,000 license fee, it does not wish to cover the related tax, its program has been dropped, etc.. Whatever the reason, it leads to serious questions about the sportsbook’s legitimacy and/or financial health.
If it comes to taxation on gaming winnings, the typical Irish better can break easy. Just professional gamblers need to pay tax in their gambling profits.
Who qualifies as a «pro»? That’s for the Revenue Commissioners and the courts to ascertain. Normally, it is dependent upon how far a person stakes, their level of experience, and whether they have another job.
Italy
Once upon a time, Italy was just like Germany, because it banned all sports gambling besides state-run websites. The same as Germany, this paradigm was deemed impermissible from the EU and Italy’s sports-betting legislation have since changed (way back in 2006).
Currently, to operate legally in Italy, gambling websites must receive a license from the AAMS, the regulatory authority from the country. Those who do not are liable to penalties.
Quite unlike Germany, the regulatory and licensing system created in Italy was deemed acceptable by the EU’s Court of Justice as it is much less restrictive compared to process the German’s tried to implement. To get a license, a site must only have a certain rate of earnings ($1.5M within the past two decades ), possess its servers located in an EU member state, meet specific fee and tax duties, and also be»stable» and»reliable.»
When it comes to contraventions of the legal regime, regulations often target betting sites rather than bettors, and Italians who wager at unlicensed operators shouldn’t fear prosecution by state authorities.
However, the penalties and ramifications that could be levied in an unlicensed sportsbook will be felt by that sportsbook’s users, too.
In accordance with ICLG.com,»[w]here an operator features gaming with no permit, he can face criminal… and civil fees. The website will be prohibited and added to a blacklist.»
Thus, any bettors that opt to utilize an unlicensed sportsbook in Italy risk losing access to that sportsbook from within the country.
[A]ny bettors that choose to utilize an unlicensed sportsbook at Italy danger losing access to this sportsbook from inside the nation. … [T]he secure play for Italian bettors is to utilize a sportsbook that’s licensed in Italy.
Consequently, the safe play for Italian bettors would be to use a sportsbook that’s licensed in Italy. Luckily, as a result of fairly liberal licensing system (which lets up to 200 licenses), there are a great number of options that provide competitive odds on the most popular Italian markets, such as football, F1, horse racing, tennis, and biking.
When Italian bettors hit it rich, they get to keep all their hard-won spoils since sports-betting winnings aren’t subject to taxation in the nation.
Netherlands
Counterintuitively, the usually liberal lawmakers in the Netherlands have a very conservative approach to internet sports gambling. At the moment, online sports gambling is illegal in the Netherlands except at the websites run by the government-controlled De Lotto business.
Despite the rigorous regulatory regime, many foreign sportsbooks provide their services to Dutch bettors. On the other hand, the regulatory authority from the Netherlands (the Kansspelautoriteit ) takes a hands on strategy to punishing offenders and has levied heavy fines on a number of these sites. As a result, many internet sportsbooks have done away with their Dutch-language choices (etc.) and there are comparatively few online gaming websites that cater to Dutch customers.
While prosecution of those who bet at these sites is not a big concern, the capacity for Dutch bettors to shed easy access for their bankroll is a huge concern when it comes to utilizing unlicensed offshore sportsbooks. You definitely do not wish to sign up with a site and then have it block Dutch IP addresses the next week.
The new legal regime [set to come into effect in January 2019] enables foreign-based sportsbooks to obtain licenses and, in turn, offer their solutions to Dutch bettors.
The good news is that the situation in the Netherlands is scheduled to change very soon. A new online gambling bill (the Online Gambling Bill) is scheduled to come into force on Jan. 1, 2019. The new legal regime will allow foreign-based sportsbooks to get licenses and, consequently, provide their solutions to Dutch bettors.
This will undoubtedly improve the betting market in the Netherlands by increasing competition for clients. Up to this stage, the government-run entities were unchallenged and had small reason to improve their product or their chances.
Concerning taxation, Dutch bettors need to pay tax at a rate or 29% of their winnings (over and above $449). But according to Alan Littler of Kalff Katz & Franssen Attorneys in Law,»While participants are liable for the tax because of prize, suppliers have to withhold the appropriate amount when paying out the prize»
Spain
Since 2011 when the Spanish Gambling Act was passed, Spain has taken a nationally legalize-and-regulate strategy to online gambling, akin to its major European neighbors covered above. To legally offer online betting services to Spanish residents, gambling websites must acquire a license from the relevant regulatory body (the Direccion General de Ordenacion del Juego, or even»DGOJ»).
This was bad news for internet operators as Spain was formerly similar to the Wild West. Despite law at the provincial level, it was a lawless land where anything went and online sportsbooks operated with impunity, irrespective of location, stability, etc..
While the imposition of a licensing regime has decreased the number of (legal) options available to Spanish bettors, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The program requires websites to meet specific standards and pay certain prices, which can help ensure that only legitimate sports-betting sites are permitted to function.
As in Italy and France, it’s best for Spanish bettors to utilize a licensed website, though the mere act of placing a wager at an unlicensed site does not seem to be prohibited.
Why?
Think about the following from the ICLG:
[I]llegal offline gaming has always been duly prosecuted in Spain. But [until 2011] Spanish governments were very permissive with respect to illegal online gambling operations.» But now, those who breach pertinent gambling laws danger»substantial fines [and] the chance of qualified authorities suspending or revoking licenses in case[s] of significant or continuing lack of compliance.
That means online gaming websites operating without a permit are liable to have their Spanish surgeries shutdown at any stage, which could, in turn, impact users’ ability to get their own funds.
Considering that the diligence with which the authorities have assaulted illegal offline gaming, that’s not a danger smart bettors could run.
How do you tell if you’re using an illegal website? 1 requirement of getting a permit is acquiring a».es» domain name, for example»Bet365.es» or even»WilliamHill.es.» In case the URL of the site you are using doesn’t end in». Es» it is probably operating illegally.
On the other hand, the converse isn’t necessarily true: having a». Es» domain name doesn’t automatically mean that a website is accredited in Spain. So Spanish bettors must take steps to verify their site of choice has the essential license from the DGOJ to operate in Spain. (To interpret that page to English using Google Chrome, follow these steps.)
Last, note that, when bettors in Spain win anything over $2,500, it must be declared as income and is taxed accordingly.
Sweden
The Swedish government exercises strict control over the online sports-betting industry. In theory, any corporation can receive a license to provide online gaming goods to people in Sweden. However, in practice, just one thing has been granted a permit, and that’s the government-run Svenska Spel.
As in most jurisdictions with thick bureaucratic barriers-to-entry, many offshore sportsbooks provide their services to people in Sweden with no license. Unlike in places like Ireland (where permits are readily accessible ), the fact that a site is available to Swedes with no Swedish permit does not imply anything nefarious (beyond the fact that it is willing to operate in a legal gray area). Operating without a license is the only choice they have.
That doesn’t mean Swedish bettors must signup with the very first website they locate. There are both quality sportsbooks and extremely dishonest ones available to Swedes, and performing background research is vital to picking a safe, secure, reliable website that caters to your particular preferences.
In certain ways, the problem in Sweden is comparable to this in the Netherlands. On the other hand, the Dutch regulatory system takes a more hands-on approach to punishing unlicensed sportsbooks. According to a paper by Erik Ullberg et al. at The Law Reviews, Swedish authorities are more inclined to go after the Swedish-based Businesses that aid unlicensed sportsbooks compared to sportsbooks themselves:
Since the government don’t have jurisdiction over the foreign gaming operators, they have instead focused on people in Sweden who carry advertisements for these companies.
The outcome is that Swedish bettors that sign up at unlicensed offshore sportsbooks are not placing their bankroll at any risk, unlike their counterparts in the Netherlands, {as long as|pro