Setback for New EU-Rules to Regulate Online Gambling
The members of the EU-parliament have cast their votes regarding a bill on online gambling. In the bill it is suggested that the online gambling market should be able to be regulated by the individual countries instead of having a common set of rules for the whole European Union. This bill got 544 supporting votes and only 36 votes against it.
The bill in question was written by the Danish politician Christel Schaldemose. In the bill she is pointing out a lot of the problems with gambling in general but mostly the problems with online gambling are pointed out. The organized crime is making a lot of money from online gambling with rigged games, credit card frauds and money laundering. Gambling is also a big risk for the underage kids as it has now become possible to gamble using your mobile phone or even through your Xbox-360.
In the bill Schaldemose also proposes a couple of methods that can be used to limit the losses that can be made online by people with a gambling problem. It is also suggested that they need to look further in to the possibilities of being able to limit the amount of money that people can lose on gambling. It is suggested that people would only be able to deposit at online gambling sites using a pre paid card that can only be bought in a store. In this way you would not be able to sit at home drunk and alone and decide to gamble away all your savings.
In this bill it is also suggested that the individual countries would be allowed to decide over their own gambling market.
The critics are saying that instead of protecting the individuals this bill is there to protect the monopoly that many of the countries have set in place. Sweden, Italy and Norway are some of the countries who have their gambling business run by the government. The critics are giving the UK as an example of a liberal and non regulated market where the individual gamblers still are protected and the gambling companies contribute towards creating awareness about problem gambling.
Surely this will not be the end of this story but it is a setback for those of us who really want an open market for online gambling with clear rules and guidelines within the EU.
Tags: EU, European Union, Online Gambling, Online Poker