Guidelines intended to support law enforcement authorities in preventing and combating illegal gambling and betting and related crimes - Hoofdinhoud

Following discussions at the LEWP and based on the observations subsequently expressed by some

delegations 2 , the initial document was reviewed. The revised document also takes into account the

international and EU legal bases related to police cooperation and effective information exchange as well as the relevant EU acquis on gambling, organised crime and money laundering. The revised parts of the text are underlined.

The Presidency would like to stress once again that this initiative is not focused on gambling regulations but only on the law enforcement aspects of gambling.

In order to dispel all doubts about the focus of this initiative, the Chair of the LEWP informed the

Online Gambling Expert Group 3 about the proposed guidelines during its 8th meeting held in

Brussels on 7 October 2014. On this occasion, the Chair of this expert group considered that the proposed guidelines submitted to the LEWP are complementary and not overlapping with the initiatives of the Online Gambling Expert Group.

The suggestions set out in the Annex are intended as non-binding guidelines for Member States and could be considered by the Member States in compliance with their national legislation and institutional set up in this field. For this reason, the term "guidelines" is proposed since it corresponds better to the orientation character of this document.

The LEWP is invited to discuss and agree to the proposed guidelines.

2 By 13 October 2014, BE, FR, MT, NL, SI and FI had sent their observations.

3 Set up at the European Commission (DG Market).

ANNEX

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The list of international and EU legal instruments and other documents

relevant in the field of combatting illegal gambling and betting

by the law enforcement authorities

The 2000 Palermo Convention

The international common instrument of reference defining the general principles for the fight against this phenomenon is the 2000 Palermo Convention against transnational organised crime

(The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, adopted by General

Assembly resolution 55/25 of 15 November 2000).

The Palermo Convention is an important step forward in the fight against organised crime and shows that the signatory states formally recognise the seriousness of transnational organised crime, as well as the need to promote and strengthen international police cooperation in this field. Thus the states that ratified the Convention committed themselves to undertaking a number of measures against transnational organised crime, including the implementation of provisions on various crimes, such as participation in an organised criminal group, money laundering, corruption, and

obstruction of justice 4 .

It is worth reiterating that the Palermo Convention, which has so far been ratified by 147 countries, binds the contracting parties to:

• ensure that all administrative, regulatory, law enforcement and other authorities dedicated to combating money laundering (including, where appropriate under domestic law, judicial

authorities) have the ability to cooperate and exchange information at the national and international levels within the conditions prescribed by their domestic law (Article 7 – Measures to combat money laundering);

4 The Palermo Convention also provides for new measures on extradition, judicial assistance

and cooperation, as well as on training and professional refresher courses in order to improve the skills of the law enforcement authority staff in the various countries.

• endeavour to develop and promote global, regional, sub-regional and bilateral cooperation among judicial, law enforcement and financial regulatory authorities in order to combat

money laundering (Article 7 – Measures to combat money laundering);

• adopt measures to enable the identification, tracing, freezing or seizure of any item, such as proceeds of crime, for the purpose of eventual confiscation (Article 12 - Confiscation and

seizure, paragraph 1);

• cooperate closely with one another, consistent with their respective domestic legal and administrative systems, to enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement action to combat the offences covered by the Convention (Article 27 - Law enforcement cooperation);

• exchange information and coordinate administrative and other measures taken as appropriate for the purpose of early identification of the offences covered by the Convention (Article 27 - Law enforcement cooperation, point (f) of paragraph 1).

Given its broad practical scope and in order to make its content more effective, the Convention envisages that, failing bilateral/multilateral agreements or understandings on direct cooperation between law enforcement authorities, the States Parties may refer to the Convention as the legal basis for cooperation between law enforcement authorities, thus indicating the relevant basic criteria that they should always guarantee in order to combat transnational organised crime, money laundering and other related serious crimes.

Considering the transnational nature of illegal gambling and betting, the degree of danger is generally linked to two concomitant factors: infiltration of the legal economy (through partnerships with local businessmen) and the capacity to do business by means of the huge capital available.

Other relevant documents

The European Council in its conclusions of 26 and 27 June 2014 5 underlined that it is essential to

guarantee a genuine area of security for European citizens through operational police cooperation and by preventing and combating serious and organised crime and to reinforce exchanges of information between the authorities of the Member States.

The Commission in its Recommendation of 14 July 2014 on principles for the protection of consumers and players of online gambling services and for the prevention of minors from gambling online (OJ L 214, 19.7.2014, p. 38) envisaged guidelines for online gambling, including the

identification and publication of information concerning online gambling operators 6 and the strengthening of identification procedures 7 for gambling account holders.

EU legislation related to law enforcement cooperation and effective information exchange:

✓ Council Framework Decision 2001/500/JHA of 26 June 2001 on money laundering, the identification, tracing, freezing, seizing and confiscation of instrumentalities and the proceeds

of crime 8 ;

✓ Council Framework Decision 2003/577/JHA of 22 July 2003 on the execution in the European

Union of orders freezing property or evidence 9 ;

✓ Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA of 22 July 2003 on combating corruption in the

private sector 10 and the Report from the Commission to the Council based on Article 9 of the

above-mentioned Framework Decision (COM(2007) 328 i);

5 EUCO 79/14.

6 The company details or other information ensuring that the operator is identifiable and can be

contacted, including the company name, place of registration and e-mail address. Such information should be displayed clearly on the landing page of the operator's gambling website and be accessible from all pages on the website.

7 By using systems that allow identity to be verified, thus preventing registration with false or

non-existent personal details. Where direct electronic verification is not possible or in place, Member States are encouraged to facilitate access to national registers, databases or other national official documents.

8 OJ L 182, 5.7.2001.

9 OJ L 196, 2.8.2003.

10 OJ L 190, 18.7.2002.

✓ Council Framework Decision 2005/212/JHA of 24 February 2005 on confiscation of crimerelated

proceeds, instrumentalities and property 11 , as well as Council Framework Decision

2006/783/JHA of 6 October 2006 on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to

confiscation orders 12 ;

✓ Council Framework Decision 2006/960/JHA of 18 December 2006 on simplifying the exchange of information and intelligence between law enforcement authorities of the Member

States of the European Union 13 ;

✓ Council Framework Decision 2007/845 i/JHA of 6 December 2007 concerning cooperation between Asset Recovery Offices of the Member States in the field of tracing and identification

of proceeds from, or other property related to, crime 14 ;

✓ Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA of 24 October 2008 on the fight against organised

crime 15 ;

✓ Directive 2014/24 i/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on

public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC i 16 ;

✓ Directive 2014/42 i/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 on the

freezing and confiscation of instrumentalities and proceeds of crime in the European Union 17 , and the relevant declaration on an analysis to be carried out by the Commission 18 .

Other relevant EU documents related to gambling, organised crime and money laundering:

✓ C(2014) 4630/2 – Commission Recommendation of 14 July 2014 on principles for the protection of consumers and players of online gambling services and for the prevention of

minors from gambling online 19 ;

11 OJ L 68, 15.3.2005.

12 OJ L 328, 24.11.2006.

13 OJ L 386, 29.12.2006.

14 OJ L 332, 18.12.2007.

15 OJ L 300, 11.11.2008.

16 OJ L 94, 28.3.2014.

17 OJ L 127, 29.4.2014, p. 39.

18 16861/13 ADD 1 of 28 November 2013.

19 OJ L 214, 19.7.2014.

✓ COM(2014) 154 final i – Communication of March 2014 from the Commission "An open and secure Europe: making it happen" in which the Commission emphasised the importance of

preventing the infiltration of criminal profits into the legal economy;

✓ European Council Conclusion of 26-27 June 2014 (EUCO 79/14), which reiterates the need to fight against serious and organised crime by strengthening operational police cooperation and enhancing prevention, with a reinforced coordination role for Europol and Eurojust, through the improvement of cross-border information exchange, including on criminal records, and the

further development of a comprehensive approach to cyber security and cybercrime;

✓ Note from the Italian delegation aimed at developing a European Union action against the infiltration of organised crime into the legal economy, especially in public procurement of 20 February 2014 (6730/14) containing an analysis of the results of the questionnaire in

document CM 5073/13;

✓ A collection of good practice examples from Member States in the EU Handbook –

Complementary Approaches and Actions to Prevent and Disrupt Organised Crime of 30 May 2011 (10899/11), and its Part II of 12 December 2013 (17600/13);

✓ European Parliament Resolution of 10 September 2013 (2012/2322(INI) i) on online gambling in the internal market;

✓ Final Report of the European Parliament on organised crime, corruption and money laundering: guidelines on actions and initiatives to be taken of 17 September 2013 (2013/2107(INI));

✓ Council Decision 2013/304 i/EU of 10 June 2013 authorising the European Commission to participate, on behalf of the European Union, in the negotiations for an international convention to combat fraud and the manipulation of sport results;

✓ SOCTA (EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment) 2013, in which Europol underlined that, between 2011 and 2013, important investigations into illegal betting and match fixing were conducted in 13 European countries and in many third countries;

✓ COM(2012) 596 final i – Commission Communication of 23 October 2012: "Towards a comprehensive European framework for online gambling";

✓ SEC(2011) 321 final – European Commission Green Paper on online gambling of 24 March 2011;

✓ Council Conclusions of 10 December 2010 on the framework for gambling and betting in the Member States of the European Union (16884/10);

✓ Final report of 14 June 2006 on the Study of Gambling Services in the Internal Market of the European Union, prepared by the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law for the European

Commission 20 .

20 http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/gambling/docs/study1_en.pdf

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