Arrest of Unibet chief spotlights French position on online gambling
Reports in the media over the last two days concerning the arrest of Unibet CEO Petter Nylander have led to the intervention of European Commission on behalf of Mr Nylander, a development that is now proving a source of embarrassment for the French government which issued the warrant for his arrest.
Unibet’s Petter Nylander was arrested this previous Monday at Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport under a warrant issued by French authorities and acted upon by Dutch police. The arrest evokes memories of the arrests of former BetonSports executives on behalf of US authorities, but there is a difference with the Nylander case now being pointed out by the European Commission.
The European Commission, a body created to oversee compliance with EU trade policy, has now commented through Commission spokesman Oliver Drewes that the arrest could constitute an arrest of a person innocent of wrongdoing.
Speaking to reporters, Drewes said: “It could very well be that somebody has been arrested who is innocent.”
The reason for this is that the French law under which Nylander was arrested is itself at odds with European legislation and therefore a European-wide arrest warrant cannot be acted upon outside of France.
“There was an earlier French arrest based on the French legislation in place and that was therefore invoked by the Dutch border police,” Drewes said.
France is currently in the position of having to conform its existing gambling monopoly laws to EU terms and the arrest of Nylander only serves to highlight France’s increasingly untenable position on the issue of freeing up online gambling markets in that country.
Observers of the online bingo industry and free online bingo operators plying their trade in Europe will be fully aware of the similarity this arrest has with US attempts to prosecute online gambling executives. The case may see an intensification of pressure on France to open its markets up to online gaming operators including bingo online games and online bingo halls.
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