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European Commission Takes Up Online Gambling Sponsorship
Case
Brussels to the rescue in banned Tour
cyclists issue
According to reports in the Financial Times in Britain, the Tour
de France cycle race has been hit by controversy not over drugs
but gambling, with a team banned for being sponsored by an online
bookmaker. And the European Commission is taking an interest in
the issue.
The Malta-based Unibet team was barred by the race organisers as
a result of the restrictive gaming laws imposed by France. Following
the ban, Charlie McCreevy, the internal market commissioner, has
written to lawyers of the Green Cycle team and the International
Cycling Union, the sport's governing body, pledging his support.
The FT reports that McCreevy is already taking the French government
to court for protecting its national gambling monopolies against
online competition, and said he would seek to broaden the case to
include the cycling restriction.
"Mr McCreevy detects more that a whiff of hypocrisy, given
that the biggest backer of the tour is the PMU, the French horseracing
monopoly, which encourages bets on the race," observes the
newspaper in reporting the incident.
"The consistency of the French approach is highly questionable,
given that other teams sponsored by gaming operators in France,
such as the Française des jeux, are permitted to participate
and given that the main sponsor of the event is in fact a gaming
operator, the PMU," says the letter, seen by the Financial
Times. The Belgian national lottery also has a team, he adds.
Green Cycle, which joined the professional tour this year, was
banned from two races through the Belgian Ardennes this month by
Amaury Sports Organisation, which also stages the Tour de France,
even though it had offered to remove the Unibet logo from its jerseys.
It is suing for Euro 5 million ($6.8 million, GBP 3.4 million) in
damages.
ASO says that permitting the team to race would leave it vulnerable
to prosecution in France for aiding and abetting illegal gambling.
"It's as if they said in a bar, 'beer is dangerous if you
drink the other fellow's brand but not if you drink my brand',"
said McCreevy's spokesman. "States are free to control gambling
but it must not be discriminatory."
McCreevy also objects to France's flexing its muscle beyond its
borders. The Tour de France runs through the UK and Belgium and
is broadcast worldwide.
"The French state is trying to extend its cosy arrangement
to other countries," said the spokesman. McCreevy has launched
a crackdown on online gambling restrictions in a dozen EU countries
after a series of European court judgments, most recently against
Italy.
Many EU countries have laws that favour traditional state lotteries
over newcomers such as internet bookmakers. Charlie McCreevy, the
internal market commissioner for the EU, launched cases against
a dozen member states in October after complaints from companies
and punters. If the European Court of Justice finds in his favour,
laws will have to change.
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