09-05-2007 Italian court rules in favour of Stanley International Betting

In one of many cases brought in courts across Italy against intermediaries collecting bets on behalf of bookmakers regularly licensed in other European Community member states, the court of Ascoli Piceno has established that following the Placanica ruling, the restrictions against foreign betting operators are in marked contrast to EC law and thus inapplicable.

Elsewhere, the Supreme Administrative Court in Finland rebuffed for the second time a Ladbrokes' application for a license to run a betting operation in Finland. As reported by the Helsingin Sanomat, the Supreme Administrative Court said the government's decision to reject the application was taken on the basis that the state-owned monopoly Veikkaus already runs a licensed gambling operation and according to Finnish law only one gambling license can be in effect at any one time.