Announcements

The European Lotteries association welcomes the approach followed by the European Commission in its strategy to boost the digital economy in the EU context where 28 jurisdictions coexist, and where therefore consideration of subsidiarity and of sector-specificity are needed, in the interests of European consumers.

Lotteries support a well-regulated EU internal market that takes subsidiarity principle and cultural diversity of lotteries in the Member States into account

The Global Lottery Monitoring System (GLMS) for sports betting held its inaugural General Assembly on Wednesday, January 21, 2015, in Brussels, Belgium. This meeting marks the establishment of the GLMS as a non-profit association, mandated by the world lottery community to monitor sports betting activity for irregular betting patterns in an effort to combat corruption in sports. 

The impetus to establish such a monitoring system came through a joint effort of the World Lottery Association (WLA) and the European State Lotteries and Toto Association (EL) in 2012. The GLMS will be built upon the existing European Lottery Monitoring System (ELMS) for sports betting, which was established by the EL and has been officially operational in Europe since 2009. The GLMS will implement the most up-to-date technology, offering its members global coverage on sports betting activity, service around the clock 365 days a year, and automatic alerts on live betting. 

The European Lotteries Association (EL) and the European Disability Forum (EDF) announce the First Addendum to their cooperation agreement, signed this month.
EL and EDF members have been working together since 2011. EDF is the representative umbrella organisation of persons with disabilities in the EU. EL is the European umbrella organisation of national lotteries operating games of chance for the public benefit.

EL  warmly welcomes the Council of Europe Convention against the Manipulation of Sports Competitions which is open to signature at the Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for sports in Switzerland.

On July 14, 2014, the European Commission adopted its Recommendation on common principles for the protection of consumers and players of online gambling services and for the prevention of minors from gambling online. EL points to the importance and the primary competence of Member States to regulate gambling on their territory in a manner that guarantees a high level of consumer protection.

EL President, Friedrich Stickler, presents the new EL Code of Conduct on Sports Betting at the final event of the IRIS project, a Pan-European programme on sports integrity which had the objective to raise awareness on the issue and enhance national coordination among all concerned stakeholders against match-fixing in EU Member-States.