Speaking of the new law, which in the future regulates online poker and other online based casinos, the discussion has been long and with different views. For most it is just to „control the players“. Some say that it’s good because now less people get scammed at www.donkeycasinopokerforthewin.ru ! Third part of the people say that finally we’re getting some taxes off this stuff, more money to culture! There are many statements, reasons and hopes. I’ll try to go through them and express my opinion about all this crap. I strongly emphasize that everything written here is my own opinion and is based on hearing/reading/seeing. There is a certain environment in Estonia now which allows only poker rooms licensed here to service Estonian players. When is Olympic Casino available in Denmark? Will they apply for a license there or is their Estonian license valid there also? If so then why can’t a poker room licensed in Europe accept Estonian players? Based on current situation Olympic Online shouldn’t allow European players to their poker room(except Estonians), because they don’t have a European license! Olympic Online is committing a crime right now by accepting foreign players. They are not violating Estonian laws but what’s even worse is that their violating European Union laws! Some would say that maybe iPokers European license applies to Olympic Online? No, because iPoker doesn’t have a EU license, every room has its own license.
I’ll take Netherlands vs Ladbrokes court case as example. Can the Netherlands monopoly De Lotto make gambling attractive through introductions of new games and through publicity in order to keep away gamblers from illegal offers? This is the question that the court of Netherlands asked the European court of Justice after 6 years of fighting. Same as Estonian gambling law, Netherlands gambling law is in conflict with European Unions Free Trade Agreement(FTA) though a bit less. Netherlands has been very stubborn in opening their gambling market to other countries and now they are facing reasonable statements from the European commission which have warned Netherlands government that they may be facing the European court for restricting access to their gambling market. This case was made against a state controlled monoply, De Lotto. Estonian law is different compared to Netherlands but in some ways it creates a comfortable situation for local companies to create a monopoly, which is a crime. Besides the fact that it is in conflict with European Free Trade Agreement.
Let’s start with Egon Veermäe interview for the national television(ETV) in a programme called „Terevisioon“. Main statements that i heard were protecting clients and benefit for the country by taxing the market. He was pretty shaky and nervous, i think he didn’t know much what he was talking about, seemed like a prewritten text. To be honest, a person who hasn’t dealt with the issue that the law was made for can’t really say anything. I’m pretty confident that they didn’t research other markets enough before creating the law. If they would have done it they would know that in order to earn benefit from taxes they should create „reasonable“ conditions for companies. What benefit are they hoping to get if the taxes written in the law scare away every company who isn’t depending on Estonian market? Okay, Olympic Online pays 5% from Rake every year. Let’s presume Olympic Online generates 5 million EEK(450,000USD approx.) rake per year, 5% of that is 250,000EEK(24,000USD approx.). What kind of mone yis that? Do they hope to renovate buildings with that? To be positive, it might pay 1 months pension for 100 pensioners!
Let’s look at the client protection theory. Mr Veermäe said in his interview that thanks to the new law client can feel safe because the client will always get their winning paid out. Someone said that thanks to the law government could demand clients funds through court when the company goes bankrupt. Realistically, their actions would be more like a show. If a company goes bankrupt then the investors get their money first. If there is something left after the companies office furniture sale then it goes straight into the pockets of the investors. 99% of cases clients see nothing. So, government sues but with no good solution. Noone goes to prison and clients see nothing. Newspapers write a little bit about the situation and that’s it. There’s no point to talk about protecting clients here. When was the last time a poker room scammed it’s players and the community couldn’t prevent it? We can’t make T6 Poker as an example here because there was constant discussion in many communities that it would be smarter to cash out, the place looks suspicious, but people kept playing. So, everybody knew the risks. Unless someone is going to deposit at www.donkeycasinopokerforthewin.ru there will be no problem. I would like to believe that people are not stupid enough to deposit into every similar place. Even if the company looks suspicious every humanbeing should be smart enough to look for extra information, google, local forums, whatever. If someone deposits into a place like that then serves them right if they lose their money! You have to have IQ of 10 to do something like that. It would be the same as to believe the e-mails we get from Zimbabwe saying that prince Amir Namud Zahib Rosavel de la Santa Maria has left 125 million USD for you but in order to receive it you have to pay 1700 USD into XXX account for notary fees. Let’s take the next point, benefit from tax. Law states a 5% tax from rake. Though this is only from Estonian players generated rake, it is still huge! Let’s take Malta, gambling law there states 0,5% tax from rake. Yes, it is from all business. Why not place a tax which is analogous when Mr. Veermäe says that benefit from tax is one of the governments goals, or a smaller tax which would attract more businesses? That would give the country huge benefits! So, the statement that government wants to make money is absurd. I refuse to believe that this law was put together by people with preschool education who hope that due to big taxes companies will buy the license and continue their business the same way. I hope that our government employes educated people who should know that getting proper benefits from tax with this kind kind of a law is not realistic. This law forces a lot of poker players either to move away or to quit. Even if earlier government wasn’t getting taxes from the poker market then the people playing were still paying more taxes by doing other things due to high paychecks. In my opinion, the government is earning less now that this law has been instated and poker rooms have been blocked. People just can’t play and earn anymore which also means that they won’t spend so much anymore or will just move back in with their parents. Government loses from other taxes, whether it be VAT or something else. They put into one pot but take away from second, third and fourth. I don’t know what the government is hoping for but benefits from tax will not increase. This would only happen if all bigger rooms would buy a license.
Let’s look at this from Olympic Casinos point of view. First of all, i’d like to mention that Olympic got the license in a flash. They observed for years how money was taken from their market and they could do nothing. They didn’t get involved with online poker and didn’t even get 1% from that market. Olympic sat and watched as the money flew by. Maybe it was justified because when the poker exploded they were doing great. As soon as the economy fell, they needed new ways to make money, right? So they had to enter a market they weren’t thinking about before. Olympic decided to open their own online poker roomand once the new gambling law was instated they instantly applied for a license. Who gets the biggest profit from the new law? Players? No. Government? No. Olympic Casino ofcourse. Thanks to the new law some people will either move or stop playing, some will find an alternative to that because this is just way over the limit. Lets say that 70% stops playing and rest 30% play at Olympics poker room from time to time. That is a win situation for Olympic because they weren’t getting ANYTHING before. They can compete with couple other rooms because they are still getting something! If the law would be comfortable and not expensive then it would lure most of the rooms here and Olympic would go bankrupt in 3 months. Most interesting about this is that supposedly Olympic were offered a business plan in 2006 to start an online poker room. Olympic did not disappoint and responded in kind, they thought it was absolute foolishness and pointless.
I believe this law makes more harm then good. Being with an average IQ middle class person and being able to make assumptions like this by reasoning and thinking logically then people working at the government should understand it even better. Why do they make such „doubtful“ laws then? Why do they create a perfect situation for a monopoly? This doesn’t mean that there will be a monopoly 100% but competing with some companies is easier then competing with tens. Companies who have spent a lot on advertising in Estonia may buy a license here. Does our government really employ people who aren’t the sharpest pencils and who hope that profits will increase thanks to this law? Estonian new gambling law is also in conflict with the European Unions Free Trade Agreement! I would definitely take this to court but it takes deep pockets. Do not make a mistake that i’m talking about Estonian court. This should be taken to European court but no average person can pay the bills for that(except Armin Karu).
I will definitely continue discussing on this subject in the near future! |
