Following the arrest of Bwin Party’s Co-Chief Executive Norbert Teufelberger by Belgian authorities, a formidable group of gambling heads and CEOs from across Europe have joined together to send a letter petitioning the European Union to take Belgium to task for violating the EU’s trade and fairness laws.
This is a smart move on the part of the gambling companies in Europe as they have appealed to the European Union. If anything, it will at least prevent countries like Belgium and Greece sending their authorities to “surprise arrest” company heads and hold them for questioning.
So far, Fourteen CEOs and company heads have signed the letter, making it a fairly weighty petition.
According to the letter which was signed by the gambling heads stated…
We hope that the commission will now enforce compliance with the European treaty and do so swiftly. Countries such as Belgium and Greece that are in clear breach of EU law and that are seeking to enforce those laws domestically are likely to be at the top of the list…The time for polite rhetoric is now over. It is time for deeds not words
The actions of the Belgian authorities are being considered highly unfair as they have refused to reply to the objections of the European Union, while flouting the trade and fairness laws for several years. Simultaneously, they have been prompt and even creative in their approach to get gambling heads to respond to their questions. The European Union has been lax in its responsibilities in ensuing its policies are followed, raising the matter of whether the European Union is even capable of enforcing its rules.
Some of the casino and gambling enterprise heads and chief executive officers who signed the petition to the European Union include Stéphane Courbit, the President of the Betclic Everest Group, 888 Holdings’ Chief Executive officer Brian Mattingly, Ralph Topping CEO at William Hill, Winamax’ CEO Canel Frichet, Magnus Silverberg from Betsson, Chief Executive Denis Kelly from Stan James, Noel Hayden, the Managing Director from Gamesys, Sportingbet’s CEO Andrew McIver and others. Both Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger from bwin.party digital entertainment also signed it but no representatives from PokerStars or Playtech have signed this petition.
