EU Struggling with Online Gambling Legislation

September 17, 2011 | News Category: Gaming Law

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For quite some time now, the European Union has been struggling with how to make decisions regarding online gambling legislation. The main question that has been asked is whether each individual member state should be making its own decisions, or if the online gambling legislation should be left up to the European Commission to decide on.

The debate has been taking place between members of the European Parliament as to what the best solution is. There is a vote on the issue scheduled for September 19th 2011. The vote is coming after there has been much feedback provided since there was a green paper issued on March 24th this year. The issue, or question, that was raised by the green paper is whether the European Commission or the individual member states should be legislating online gambling for European Union member states.

Germany's Jürgen Creutzmann, a liberal member of the European Parliament, proposed Internet gambling legislation for the European Union with the issuing of the green paper in March. Although he does not support a single law for all online gambling in the European Union, he supports the need for closer cooperation of the EU member states.

"Member states alone are not in a position to regulate all areas of Internet gambling. Much expanded cooperation between national regulatory bodies is therefore essential."

At this time, each European Union member state regulates its own online gambling activities. However, because it is extremely difficult to define borders when it comes to something like online gambling, there are many that feel that there should be a standard set by the European Union that ensures that all online gambling that takes place in the European Union is held to the same standards and legislation across Europe.

There are those who feel that there is no need for the European Commission's online gambling regulation, and would be happy to support an industry of unregulated online gambling across the European Union. There are other members of the European Parliament that have strong opinions regarding the restriction of Internet gambling advertising, and that online gamblers should receive various warning messages. Some also feel that gambling limits should be imposed on players.

After the September 19th vote, there is another vote scheduled for October 12th 2011. The second vote is there in order to ratify the online gambling legislation that is created providing next week's meeting end with agreement on the wording of online gambling legislation.