State lotteries reassured by Placanica ruling

The recent ruling by the European Court of Justice is welcomed by bookmakers as a sign that European markets are opening up. But the state lottery community is undeterred. On the contrary, after reading the fine print, the European association of state lotteries finds the judgement reassuring. Just like the landmark Gambelli judgement, the Court's new ruling recognises that Member States have a perfect right to restrict gambling activities. And there's more: For the first time, the Court has said that it's perfectly legitimate for Member States to channel demand away from less regulated sources by offering games that people want to play, advertising them and delivering them over new distribution channels. Philippe Vlaemminck says that's a significant step forward in ECJ jurisprudence in the direction of maintaining restrictions.