Bwin has lost the latest round of its battle against the Portuguese state monopoly, setting a legal precedent likely to set back gambling operators fighting monopolies all over Europe.
The European Court of Justice ruled this week that a Portuguese law giving state-run charity La Santa Casa de Misericordia a monopoly on betting and lottery games is legal if it is designed to combat fraud and other crimes.
EU rules ensure that companies can provide goods and services freely across EU borders, but the ECJ ruled that this right can be restricted if the public interest is at stake.
"The prohibition which Portuguese legislation imposes on operators such as Bwin of offering games of chance via the internet may be regarded as compatible with the freedom to provide services," the court said in its ruling.
The case against Bwin and the Portuguese football league, which Bwin has sponsored since 2005, is the first in which the ECJ has ruled on whether an EU member state can extend a gambling monopoly to the internet and its verdict could be pivotal for the European egaming sector.
