奥地利的陆基赌场和网上娱乐场被垄断是合理的(2)

　　译文：

　　AUSTRIAN HIGH COURT RULES THAT CASINOS AUSTRIA'S MONOPOLY IS JUSTIFIED

　　The Austrian High Court just ruled that the 15-year online gaming monopoly offered by the state to Casinos Austria is constitutional. This means that Casinos Austria will remain the only company legally able to offer online casino services in the country.

　　In October 2011 Austria awarded a land-based lottery and online casino gaming license to Casinos Austria. The licenses in question will be valid for a period of 15 years that began on October 1st 2012. Austria, however does not intend to award more licenses to additional companies.

　　This decision was challenged by three online casino companies that in the past also applied for the sole license issued by the state. These companies are Bet-At-Home, Lotelo and Bandal. They claim that the whole licensing procedure itself was a sham from the beginning.

　　The three companies argue that the tender conditions for the license were specially constructed to eliminate all companies from the race except Casinos Austria. One example to this is the fact that the tender conditions required a minimum capital requirement of €109 million and surprisingly Casinos Austria's capital was exactly €110 million.

　　Implementing tender conditions that purposefully eliminate certain companies while offering an unfair advantage to one specific company （that happens to be a domestic venture） is against the laws of Austria and the European Union.

　　However the Austrian High Court disagrees with this claim stating that the tender procedures and rules for Austria's only online casino license were respected. The Court also ruled that the government's decision to award only one single license is also justified.

　　In a statement the High Court explained that:

　　"The objectives of the restriction of gambling concessions, namely to prevent crime, to avoid excessive stimulation to participate in gambling by unregulated competition and to prevent gambling being exclusively organized for commercial profit are, in view of the proven social harmfulness of gambling, in the public interest."

　　What this statement basically means is that breaching national and European Union regulations is justified if it's supposedly in the interest of the public. Online gaming observers however argue that this decision was made in order to protect the business interests of Casinos Austria which is one of Austria's largest and best-earning ventures.

　　They argue that in case the Court's statement that gambling is "proven to be harmful for society" would be true, then the Court and the Austrian government would be obliged to ban all kinds of land-based and online gambling activities and not award even one single license.