British bookmaker Ladbroke was taken to a Dutch court by De Lotto, a Dutch non-profit-making foundation which offers games of chance, who asked the injunction on the UK firm’s online gambling operations on the grounds they are not licensed in the Netherlands.
Ladbrokes appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court after the lower court backed De Lotto. And the Dutch Supreme Court asked the ECJ in 2008 to rule whether the Dutch licensing system was compatible with EU law allowing for the free movement of goods and services across the 27-country European Union.
Another case was brought by Betfair, the world's largest online gaming exchange, who disputed the Dutch authorities’ decision to decline a license while they had granted similar licenses to two Dutch companies. The court again sought guidance from the ECJ.
The ECJ backed the position of the lower Dutch court on Ladbrokes.
"Such a restriction may be justified, in particular, by the objectives of consumer protection and the prevention of both fraud and incitement to squander money on gambling, as well as the need to preserve public order," it said. It cited the same rationale for the Betfair case.
"The grant to such an operator of exclusive rights to operate games of chance, or the renewal of such rights, without any competitive tendering procedure would not appear to be disproportionate in the light of the objectives pursued by the Netherlands legislation," it said.
Consultancy H2 Gambling Capital estimates the European interactive market could be worth as much as 12.6 billion euros ($15.50 billion) by 2012, up from 8.3 billion euros last year.