StanleyBet made an unfortunate announcement today, revealing that they’ve lost their appeal with the European Court of Justice. This follows after the European betting site contested a tax dispute claim from Italy, which was instituted after it was revealed that StanleyBet was using unknown data centres. The Italian Customs & Monopolies Agency demanded that StanleyBet payout €8 million for their illicit behaviour. However, StanleyBet began challenging this fine and claimed that is discriminatory towards their services. This betting site expressed that their data centres were licensed in Malta and that they’d provided verification to the ICMA.
StanleyBet also argued that this taxation fine was secretly acting as a double tax on their business operations. The Italian Customers & Monopoly Industry could’ve potentially been breaching the “Charter of Discrimination for Foreign Enterprises” in the European Union. The Court of Justice, through their investigations, revealed that the ICMA wasn’t breaking any legislation. This governing entity responded to these wild accusations, expressing that StanleyBet was working around European loopholes to avoid paying transactional taxes in Italy. Tax Invasion is one of the most severe crimes in the Italian and European Courts, with StanleyBet refusing to attend any hearings in Italy.
February 26th would mark the date where StanleyBet would have their appeal rejected by the European Court of Justice. This followed after the betting operator refused to engage with the Italian Courts, prompting additional penalties onto StanleyBet and forcing them to relocate their data centres. It was noted that Italian Gambling Legislation requires that bets be placed within country boundaries and that because of this, the appeal that ICMAs decision wasn’t discriminatory. It’s now expected that StanleyBet will have their operational license in Italy terminated, with the potential of other licenses being lost throughout Europe.
DigiTain Expands Into Romania & Portugal
While StanleyBet has continued to struggle over the last twenty-four months, another firm has entered into high rates of global expansion. This extends to DigiTain, who revealed that their launching into the Romania and Portugal markets. It follows after they’ve worked consistently towards growing their sportsbook services, which extends to casino aggregation and tracking systems. They’re licensed through the Malta Gambling Authority, similar to StanleyBet. Subsequently, it’s expected that DigiTain won’t launch into the Italian market. It could prove to be cost-ineffective for the online betting operator.