Translation of "Groupe de recherche en mathématique des jeux du hasard " (French → English) :

11. Calls on the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States – where appropriate through the expert group – to explore the possibility of EU-wide interoperability between national self-exclusion registers that include, inter alia, self-exclusion, personal loss and time limits, and that are accessible to national authorities and licensed gambling operators, so that any customer self-excluding or surpassing their gambling limits at one gambling operator has the opportunity to be automatically self-excluded from all other licensed gambling operators; underlines the fact that any mechanism to exchange personal information on problem-g ...[+++]amblers must be subject to strict data protection rules; stresses the importance of the expert group in working towards the protection of citizens against gambling addictions; stresses that in order to make consumers aware of their own gambling activity, this register should show the consumer all information pertaining to her/his gambling history whenever she/he starts to play;

For these reasons, games of chance involving a stake representing a sum of money, including lotteries, betting and other forms of gambling services, as well as on-line games and search engines, but not broadcasts devoted to gambling or games of chance, should also be excluded from the scope of this Directive.

The European Court of Justice confirms in its ruling C-42/07 that each Member State is free to set the objectives of its policy on betting and gambling and to define the level of protection sought.

29. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to take note of studies already conducted in this field, to focus on research examining the incidence, formation and treatment of gambling addiction and to collect and publish statistics on all channels (online and offline) of gambling sectors and gambling addiction in order to produce comprehensive data on the entire gambling sector of the EU; underlines the need for statistics from independent sources, particularly concerning gambling addiction;

For these reasons, games of chance involving a stake representing a sum of money, including lotteries, betting and other forms of gambling services, as well as on-line games and search engines, but not broadcasts devoted to gambling or games of chance, should also be excluded from the scope of this Directive.

The function of these rules, which were drafted in accordance with the international standards of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), is to effectively combat the use of games of chance for money laundering purposes in the European Union.