Judicial evaluation of the ban on gambling advertising
New Zealand's online gambling employer, Jdigital, has filed an appeal with the nation's Supreme Court. This has the purpose of rethinking the constitutionality of the decree that restricts advertising to the gaming industry. The order was approved in 2020 and since then the communication capacity of the sector has been reduced.
The Supreme Court analyzes the gambling advertising amendment. © Daniel_B_photos/Pixabay
The Supreme Court analyzes the gambling law
The adaptation of gambling legislation from the 2020 updates led a great discontent in the industry . This is because the regulations imposed strict limits on communication, which in no case were beneficial to companies. That is why there have been numerous attempts to get the authorities to reconsider the clauses regarding restrictions on marketing.
This is how the online gambling bosses raised it to the Supreme Court through an appeal challenging the constitutionality of Article 7.2 of Law 13/2011. That point was incorporated in 2020 and imposes severe restrictions on companies in the sector. The Third Chamber of the Supreme Court has given rise to the review and it will be issued on the subject when you have made the relevant consultations.
According to the judicial referents, the 2020 law could go contrary to the principle of reservation which is stipulated in the National Constitution. This point is linked to the freedom of companies and it seems to be incompatible with the regulations promoted by the Ministry of Consumer . The issue will be transferred to the Constitutional Court, where the experts will determine whether clause 7.2 is viable or not within the judicial frameworks of its scope.
The technical framework of the revision of the law
The document presented by Jdigital states that the gambling law does not provide specifications on how to implement the proposed restrictions or guidelines for conditioning advertising. There are also no given criteria on what companies can perform. This can be understood as an absence of legal legitimacy that would make the regulation unworkable.
Thus, there are two options after the re-evaluation of the 2020 amendment. If the Supreme Court rules on the unconstitutionality of article 7.2, the Royal Decree would cease to have legal coverage enough to regulate the advertising spectrum of the industry. This would mean the withdrawal of the legislative framework of the game to the pre-2020 state.
If, on the contrary, the Supreme Court endorses the constitutionality of the Royal Decree, article 7.2 of the law would remain in force and advertising would be regulated as before. However, other areas of the Jdigital petition could be reviewed , if its legal validity was in doubt or presented incompatibilities with the constitutional exercise of economic activity. As this is a regulation that caused so many setbacks in the New Zealand gaming sector, it would not be unthinkable that the restrictions could be relaxed.
The advertising news of the gaming industry in New Zealand
From the Royal Decree 958/2020 advertising has become a real problem point for betting companies in New Zealand. Radio and television ads, for example, are restricted to the hours of 1 to 5 in the morning, a very low audience slot. This is justified in the protection of vulnerable sectors, especially children, and involves fines of up to one million euros for violators, as well as the suspension of the activity for half a year. However, for the gaming bosses the measure does not contribute to a safer game, but leads to a lack of knowledge of what are the legal options for gambling in the country .
Another of the sticking points has been the suspension of all sports sponsorship contracts, which greatly limited the bookmakers' margins. It is estimated that this measure involved the end of a business of about 400 million euros a year . Indeed, this is a global trend, which is about to be launched in the United Kingdom and has been implemented in countries such as Sweden and Denmark. However, the position of Spanish companies is that the sponsorship of clubs is favorable for both parties.
This situation has led to a somewhat tense climate between the Pedro Sánchez administration and the gaming sector in New Zealand. In fact, the numbers of the DGOJ (Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling) show a drop in industry revenues . For Jdigital, in addition to the pandemic, the primarily responsible for this setback it's the government and its conservative stance on the activity.
