Brussels - French Open organizers have filed a lawsuit in a bid to ban online gambling companies from offering bets on the Grand Slam tournament. The complaint filed Friday in courts in Liege in eastern Belgium and in Paris claims that Internet betting companies stain the reputation of the clay-court championship at Roland Garros. "There is urgency to act because sporting ethic is at risk," Jean-Francois Vilotte, director general of the French tennis federation, told The Associated Press.

The Administrative Court of Schleswig (Schleswig-Holsteinisches Verwaltungsgericht) has raised serious doubts about the justification of the new Interstate Treaty on Gambling (Glücksspielstaatsvertrag) and referred a dispute about the state monopoly regarding sports betting to the European Court of Justice (decision of 30 January 2008, file no. 12 A 102/06). Plaintiff in the main proceeding is a remote gaming operator, licensed in Gibraltar. The gaming operator which wants to offer its services cross-border also in the State of Schleswig-Holstein, filed an application.

General Direction of Games and Draws of the Department of Interior (Segob) is under the investigation of the Superior Auditing Company of the Federation (ASF) and the Secretary of the Public Function (SFP). ASF revises 7/2007 and 8/2007 “with regards to the authorization and granting of modification of licenses to big licensees”, as well as the process of “authorization and issuance of draw licenses”, whose results will be ready this month.

Frankfurt (Thomson Financial) - A Karlsruhe, Germany-based court ruled that Austrian sports betting company BWIN Interactive Entertainment AG is allowed to accept wagers from customers in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgarter Nachrichten reported, citing a spokesman for the Karlsruhe regional council. The administrative court ordered that a previous judgment forcing the company to stop accepting wagers from these customers should not be executed...

As part of a series of changes to the Law Number 56/2007, published last December 28th, Spain introduced an additional measure in which the government is forced to approve, in a year, a law in which games and bets are regulated, “in particular those made by interactive systems based in electronic communications”. One of the principles to which the law should attend, is the following:

Online betting companies including BWIN Interactive Entertainment and Fluxx are gearing up to file a legal complaint against German state monopoly on lotteries and most forms of betting, law firm Hambach & Hambach head Wulf Hambach said. Hambach said that he represents about 20 of the world’s biggest betting companies, according to the local newspaper the Die Welt.

Major betting companies Expekt, Ladbrokes, Betsson and Unibet have launched a new Responsible Gambling Code in Norway in a move designed to counter a government initiative to ban its citizens from transferring funds to foreign online gaming companies. Under the proposed ban, Norwegian customers would be stopped from betting on football or cross-country skiing online but the new Code seeks to promote and strongly support responsible gambling in answer to one of the Government’s justifications for the proposals.

The Senate asked the government to present both bills in order to regulate Internet betting systems, through measures to encourage the Information Society Law. This bill was supported by the whole chamber but Grupo Popular, although this association allowed the introduction of some novelties in the text, such as the named Internet betting regulation. All the parliamentary groups agreed to introduce a transactional amendment in order to regulate online gaming.

Gaming company Ritzio Entertainment Group plans to expand its presence in Germany and Italy and enter other European countries before gambling is restricted in its home market. Ritzio has spent about USD 100 million this year buying 80 slot-machine halls in Germany, gaining from 1 percent to 2 percent of the local market, spokeswoman Larisa Shishkina said Friday. The company is targeting as much as 15 percent of the German gaming market and plans to add to its business in Italy, where it has a venture with a local operator.

Bulgarian Ministry of Finance submitted proposals that would regulate and tax online betting following a recent review. According to one of its major newspapers, Trud, the nation has been considering a more pragmatic approach to online gambling. Trud newspaper said a more pragmatic approach has been considered for over a year as hundreds of millions of dollars are thought to leak through online gambling sites untaxed.

Brussels, Belgium: France opened talks with the European Union on Tuesday in an effort to end their dispute over gambling and consider ways to open up the French betting monopoly. The EU's head office is looking to end state monopolies on gambling in several European countries in a bid to enforce the EU's free internal market and antitrust rules. It has threatened to bring countries before the European Court of Justice if they do not reform voluntarily.

As part of its efforts to protect the integrity of the game of football, FIFA has extended its early warning system for monitoring sports betting to take in the preliminary competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Early Warning System GmbH, a company founded specifically for this purpose with its own staff and offices in Zurich, has been contracted to undertake this task and started the relevant work on 1 July 2007.