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Belowwe set out the legal status of online gambling in the four biggest European gambling regions: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
As you will see, each nation takes a legalize-and-regulate approach to online sports betting. However, some are far more flexible and liberal with their licensing regime than others, and that seriously impacts the number of legal options available to bettors.
The table below briefly summarizes the position in each country. The ensuing sections provide more detailed descriptions.
COUNTRY IS ONLINE SPORTS BETTING LEGAL? ARE ONLINE BOOKMAKERS REQUIRED TO HAVE A LICENSE? IS IT SMART/SAFE TO USE AN UNLICENSED SITE? DO ONLINE BETTORS Need to PAY TAX ON WINNINGS?
France Yes Yes No Yes. If more than 1,500
Germany Yes Sort of Maybe No
Ireland Yes Yes No No, except for”professionals”
Italy Yes Yes No No
Netherlands Yes, but hardly Yes No Yes, but it’s withheld from the operator
Spain Yes Yes No Yes, if over $2,500
Sweden Yes Yes Maybe No, so Long as the sportsbook is licensed in EU
France
Online sports betting is legal but heavily regulated in France. To lawfully offer sports wagers to French residents, a betting sitemust be accredited by the ARJEL (Autorit?? p r??gulation des jeux en ligne, which appropriately translates to”Regulatory Authority for Online Games”).
Since the French government puts heavy tax burdens on operators, so several online sites register in different authorities and still try to offer their services to people in France.
Under the current legislative framework, this is deemed illegal. Even if an online sportsbook has a permit in a foreign authority, state Gibraltar, it cannot legally provide sports-betting solutions to the French people without a permit in the ARJEL.
This is true in many areas of the world. On the other hand, the French governments are more proactive in policing it than many, going so far as to block access to specific sites from inside France.
[Though] the only act of placing a wager at an unlicensed sportsbook might not be prohibited under French legislation… using an unlicensed sportsbook still includes a number of risks.
It must be noted that, like in the US, the mere act of placing a bet for an unlicensed sportsbook may not be prohibited under French law. The legislation tend to target online betting providers instead of the individual bettors.
But, employing an unlicensed sportsbook nevertheless includes a number of risks. You cannot be certain that unlicensed sites will stay available from within France. The authorities may take action to block access and efficiently shut-down their existence in the country at any moment, because it is operating illegally.
As a result, the safest path for sports bettors in France is to use a licensed sportsbook.
Figuring out which websites are accredited and which aren’t is straightforward. The ARJEL keeps an updated list of all of the licensees on its site: http://www.arjel.fr/-Liste-des-operateurs-agrees-.html.
The ARJEL maintains an updated list of all of the licensees on its own website.
The website is in French, of course, but if you are using an internet browser like Chrome, it is simple to interpret the page to English. (While the grammar won’t be perfect, you’ll be able to decipher the essential elements.)
If (when?) Your own sports-betting efforts prove fruitful in France, be aware that everything over $1,500 must be declared as income and, as such, is taxable. In accordance with rgweek.com, online gambling is redeemed at approximately 9%.
Germany
The legal status of online sports betting from Germany is in a state of flux and has existed for some time. The German government has sought to heavily regulate the marketplace and, in 2012, passed an amended Interstate Treaty on Gambling, which banned online gambling (and online gaming in all its forms) except for those offered by the government or licensed by the regulatory authorities. (This law was really a relaxation of an earlier legislation, which didn’t even permit for licenses and effectively made a state monopoly.)
The law came under siege almost as fast as it came in to effect. Importantly, the EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that the law impermissibly limits online gambling websites based/licensed in other countries from providing their solutions to Germans.
[T]he EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that [Germany’s online gambling law] impermissibly limits online websites based/licensed in different countries from providing their solutions to Germans.
The German government responded by amending the legislation, but only slightly, and said amendment has not come in to force. The amended law would simply increase the number of licenses the authorities may grant; it wouldn’t offer overseas sportsbooks carte blanche to operate in Germany. It remains to be seen whether such a law — if it ever comes into force — could be deemed a suitable limitation by the courts.
What Germany is now left with is basically a crap heap of legislation pertaining to internet sports gambling. The legislation on the books require sportsbooks to possess a permit to operate legally, but the laws themselves (along with the licensing process they produce ) are deemed impermissible by the EU courts.
In practice, quite a few foreign-based sports-betting websites continue to function in Germany (meaning that they continue to accept German bettors and are still accessible from within Germany’s borders). Unlike in France, in which the government have obtained a hands on approach to restricting access to unlicensed online operators, the German authorities does not appear to be actively attempting to stop these foreign sportsbooks from working in Germany, likely due to the state of the present legislation.
Since the International Comparative Legal Guides’ 2017 newspaper on Germany states,”[T]he licensing procedure for… sports betting licenses… continues to be held incompatible with EU legislation… Criminal proceedings have… seldom been pioneered. … German authorities authorities… have been reluctant to impose gaming law offenses, one explanation for this probably being that German gaming regulation was characterised by legal doubt due to it facing severe criticism in light of EU legislation for decades now.
In connection with sports betting… any enforcement action brought against sports betting operators in a situation where a criminal de facto monopoly persists (as held to be the case in Germany) is incompatible with EU law”
[I]n the rare instances when [German] governments do prosecute breaches of gaming legislation, it is the operator that is held liable, not the bettor.
The newspaper also notes , in the rare cases once the government do violate breaches of gaming legislation, it is the operator that’s held accountable, not the bettor.
The final result is that Germans can feel quite safe — by the country authorities, at least when it comes to utilizing online gaming websites, whether those are licensed in Germany or elsewhere.
Selecting the best and most-secure sportsbook in Germany does not come down to if It’s accredited, but will rather be determined by a multitude of other variables, such as:
A record of timely payments
A reputation for anonymity and safety Accessible and easy-to-use help sections A huge variety of deposit and withdrawal procedures Strong customer service representation
A broad choice of sports markets to bet on.
Regarding taxation, just winnings in the state-run sites are taxed. Due to the cluttered and muddled legal regime that currently exists, there doesn’t seem to be any process in place for taxing winnings out of private online sportsbooks.
Ireland
Like most European nations, Ireland regulates online sports gambling through a licensing strategy. The Betting Act 2015 is the appropriate law right now, and supplies that anyone seeking to give bookmaking or gambling services to individuals in Ireland must be granted a permit by the Revenue Commissioners, which double as the Irish taxation support.
As with any regulatory strategy, this has benefits and drawbacks for the general people. The simple fact that sportsbooks need to pay tax and proceed through the bureaucratic hoops of acquiring a license contributes to things like higher juice on the opposite end.
On the other hand, the licensing system also ensures that only legitimate sportsbooks offer their services to Irish residents.
How?
Under the current legal framework, the officers of the company applying for a license has to, inter alia, obtain certificates of personal fitness.
Furthermore, licenses are only allowed for a couple of years at a time and, according to the ICLG, one of the variables that the Revenue Commissioners believe during renewal applications is whether the sportsbook has paid its debts. That is vital, as bettors cannot sue sportsbooks for outstanding debts in Ireland, or vice versa. (Gambling debts are generally unenforceable.) The licensing system provides an impetus for sportsbooks to function on the up-and-up.
Just like most countries, the penalties for unlicensed sports gambling fall almost exclusively about the operators. But Irish punters are well-advised to stick to licensed books, nonetheless. If an online betting site is offering its services to Irish bettors with no license, there will be a concerning reason for this. Either it doesn’t want to pay the $10,000 license fee, it does not want to cover the related tax, its program has been dropped, etc.. Whatever the reason, it contributes to serious questions about the sportsbook’s validity and/or financial health.
When it comes to taxation on gambling winnings, the typical Irish better can break easy. Just professional gamblers need to pay tax in their betting profits.
Who qualifies as a “pro”? That’s for the Revenue Commissioners and the courts to ascertain. Generally, it is dependent upon how much a person stakes, their degree of experience, and whether they have another occupation.
Italy
Once on a time, Italy was like Germany, because it banned all sports betting apart from state-run sites. Just like Germany, this paradigm has been deemed impermissible by the EU and Italy’s sports-betting legislation have since shifted (way back in 2006).
Now, to function legally in Italy, gambling websites must receive a license from the AAMS, the regulatory authority from the country. The ones who do not are liable to penalties.
Quite unlike Germany, the regulatory and licensing system created in Italy has been deemed acceptable by the EU’s Court of Justice as it’s a lot less restrictive compared to process the German’s attempted to implement. To receive a license, a site must simply have a certain rate of turnover ($1.5M within the past two years), possess its servers situated within an EU member state, meet certain fee and tax duties, and also be”secure” and”reliable.”
If it comes to contraventions of this legal regime, the laws tend to target gambling sites rather than bettors, and Italians who wager at unlicensed operators shouldn’t fear prosecution by state authorities.
On the other hand, the penalties and ramifications that could be levied in an unlicensed sportsbook would be felt by this sportsbook’s users, too.
According to ICLG.com,”[w]here an operator offers gaming without a license, he could face criminal… and civil charges. The website will be prohibited and added to a blacklist.”
Hence, any bettors who choose to utilize an unlicensed sportsbook in Italy risk losing access to this sportsbook from within the nation.
[A]ny bettors who choose to utilize an unlicensed sportsbook at Italy risk losing access to that sportsbook from inside the nation. … [T]he safe play for Italian bettors is to utilize a sportsbook that’s licensed in Italy.
As a result, the safe play for Italian bettors would be to use a sportsbook that is licensed in Italy. Fortunately, due to the rather liberal licensing system (which allows up to 200 permits ), there are a multitude of choices that provide competitive odds on the most common Italian markets, such as football, F1, horse racing, tennis, and cycling.
When Italian bettors hit it rich, they get to keep all their hard core spoils since sports-betting winnings aren’t subject to taxation in the country.
Netherlands
Counterintuitively, the usually liberal lawmakers in the Netherlands have a very conservative approach to internet sports gambling. At the moment, online sports betting is illegal in the Netherlands except in the sites run by the government-controlled De Lotto corporation.
Regardless of the strict regulatory regime, many foreign sportsbooks offer their services to Dutch bettors. On the other hand, the regulatory authority in the Netherlands (the Kansspelautoriteit ) takes a hands-on strategy to punishing offenders and contains imposed heavy fines on many of these websites. Because of this, several internet sportsbooks have done away with their Dutch-language options (etc.) and there are relatively few online gaming websites that cater to Dutch clients.
While prosecution of those who gamble at these sites isn’t a big concern, the potential for Dutch bettors to shed easy access to their own bankroll is a huge concern when it comes to utilizing unlicensed offshore sportsbooks. You definitely don’t wish to signup with a website and then have it block Dutch IP addresses another week.
The new legal regime [set to come into effect in January 2019] enables foreign-based sportsbooks to obtain licenses and, consequently, provide their solutions to Dutch bettors.
The good thing is that the situation in the Netherlands is scheduled to change quite shortly. A brand new online gambling bill (the Online Gambling Bill) is scheduled to come into force on Jan. 1, 2019. The new legal regime will allow foreign-based sportsbooks to obtain licenses and, consequently, offer their services to Dutch bettors.
This will improve the betting market in the Netherlands by increasing competition for customers. Up to this stage, the government-run entities were unchallenged and had small reason to enhance their product or their chances.
In terms of taxation, Dutch players need to pay tax at a rate or 29% of the winnings (over and over $449). But according to Alan Littler of Kalff Katz & Franssen Attorneys in Law,”While participants are accountable for the tax due on a prize, providers are required to withhold the appropriate amount when paying out the prize.”
Spain
Since 2011 when the Spanish Gambling Act was passed, Spain has obtained a nationally legalize-and-regulate approach to online betting, akin to the major European allies covered over. To lawfully provide online betting services to Spanish residents, gaming websites must acquire a permit from the applicable regulatory body (the Direccion General de Ordenacion del Juego, or”DGOJ”).
This was bad news for online operators as Spain was previously akin to the Wild West. Despite law in the provincial level, it was a lawless land where anything moved and online sportsbooks operated with impunity, regardless of location, stability, etc..
Even though the imposition of a licensing program has decreased the number of (legal) options available to Spanish bettors, that’s not necessarily a terrible thing. The program requires sites to meet specific standards and pay certain prices, which can help make sure that only legitimate sports-betting sites are allowed to function.
As in Italy and France, it’s wise for Spanish bettors to utilize a certified website, though the mere act of placing a wager at an unlicensed site doesn’t seem to be prohibited.
Why?
Think about the following from the ICLG:
[I]llegal offline gambling has ever been duly prosecuted in Spain. However, [until 2011] Spanish governments were quite permissive with regards to illegal online gaming operations” Now, however, those who breach applicable gambling laws danger”substantial fines [and] the chance of qualified authorities suspending or revoking permits in case[s] of significant or sustained absence of compliance.
That means online betting sites operating without a permit are liable to have their own Spanish surgeries shutdown at any point, which may, in turn, influence users’ ability to get their funds.
Considering that the diligence with which the government have attacked prohibited offline gaming, that’s not a risk smart bettors would run.
How do you tell if you are using an illegal site? 1 requirement of getting a license is obtaining a”.es” domain , such as”Bet365.es” or”WilliamHill.es.” If the URL of the website you’re using does not end in”. Es” it is likely operating illegally.
On the other hand, the converse is not necessarily true: having a”. Es” domain doesn’t necessarily mean that a site is licensed in Spain. So Spanish bettors should take action to verify that their website of choice has the necessary permit from the DGOJ to function in Spain. (To interpret that page to English using Google Chrome, follow these steps.)
Lastly, note that, when bettors in Spain acquire anything over $2,500, it must be declared as income and is taxed accordingly.
Sweden
The Swedish government exercises strict control over the internet sports-betting industry. In theory, any corporation can obtain a permit to provide online gaming goods to individuals in Sweden. However, in practice, just 1 entity was granted a permit, and that is the government-run Svenska Spel.
As in many jurisdictions with thick bureaucratic barriers-to-entry, many offshore sportsbooks offer their services to people in Sweden with no permit. Unlike in areas like Ireland (where licenses are readily accessible ), the fact that a site is accessible to Swedes with no Swedish permit doesn’t imply anything nefarious (beyond the fact that it is willing to function in a legal grey area). Operating without a license is the only option they have.
That doesn’t mean Swedish bettors must signup with the very first site they find. There are both quality sportsbooks and extremely dishonest ones available to Swedes, and performing background research is vital to picking a safe, secure, dependable site that caters to your particular preferences.
In certain ways, the problem in Sweden is comparable to that in the Netherlands. On the other hand, the regulatory system takes a more hands-on strategy to punishing unlicensed sportsbooks. According to a newspaper by Erik Ullberg et al. at The Law Reviews, Swedish governments are more inclined to go after the Swedish-based Businesses that assist juvenile sportsbooks compared to sportsbooks themselves:
Since the government don’t have jurisdiction over the foreign gaming operators, they have instead concentrated on those in Sweden who carry advertisements for these companies.
The result is that Swedish bettors that sign up at unlicensed offshore sportsbooks are not placing their bankroll at any real risk, unlike their counterparts in the Netherlands, {as long as|pro

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