Online Casinos Directory

Many countries in Europe are writing their own gambling laws. They are just moving into the market, or new to it, and still trying to come up with rules and regulations that are going to work for them. The problem here though is that it is unchartered territory. Legislators know one thing—the market is highly lucrative if they get it to work the right way. It can be hard to come up with laws that work for a community—in particular when it is something that needs to happen quickly. For most European countries the longer it takes them to implement their own plans for gambling, the more time they are giving to other countries to usurp revenue from their residents. It is a timing game in a lot of ways. Just like the US made the mistake of foregoing millions of dollars, so other European countries don’t want to fall into the same problems. The US banned online gambling and instead of players stopping their wagers, they merely sought out offshore gambling companies and channeled millions of unrecoverable dollars to other countries. European states don’t want to allow the same thing to happen to them. This is why it is becoming a priority to come up with laws that work.
So far this is proving to be a problem though. Individual states are writing their own laws and it is proving to be more difficult than anticipated. Romania for example just put together its own gambling law but it is being pitted against the already existing EC, European Commission, laws. The EC came up with the European Gaming and Betting Association or EGBA. This organization is claiming that Romanian laws are not conducive to their own law and that is posing to be a problem for the small country. Namely the problem is with specific precepts they are trying to implement like:

• EU-licensed online casinos must be based in Romania
• No online pool wagering, but legalized internet gaming
• Censorship of all advertisements and marketing plans for EU-approved
companies

The EGBA is not supportive of these and other rules. They believe that it puts Romania in a position of creating a monopoly. Most likely the country i sgoing to have to changes things before their protocols are accepted with EU’s approval.

The EGBA, or the European Gaming and Betting Association, is the governing body that decides on rules of online gambling casinos and what regulations each must follow. Their aim is to ensure the protection of online gamblers in many different areas.  First of all, security is their prime concern. With the continued rise of identity theft, it is important to focus on secure information transfer.  The EGBA is an organization that sets up the rules for online casinos in terms of security and encryption. With the huge growth in online gaming, the market is aware that some safeguards need to be set up for the gambling public. Similarly to brick and mortar casinos, some government body needs to take the responsibility of maintaining and monitoring online casino activity.  The biggest issues are identity safety, funds, and underage gambling. Many casinos are finding themselves monitored by Price Waterhouse Coopers but there are other organizations hoping to contribute to gambling safety.

An additional concern the government has is to protect consumers from unscrupulous online casinos is that as the global marketplace continues to grow, it’s harder and harder to find culprits. For example, if a person deposits money to their online account expecting to play games, they can be misled. It is possible their account may be frozen or the money may simply, disappear.  Then when they do some investigating, they realize that there is no customer service line and tracking down the company is virtually impossible.  This is another concern of the EGBA.  They are looking to set up regulations in terms of transparency with customers. This includes having 24-hour/7-day a week customer service lines available to any customer who needs them.

Game fairness is another concern. Intricate codes and overwhelming TOS can potentially create problems if games are “fixed” in the online world.  The EGBA requires that games are never fixed and that the website has a good track record of payouts.  They want to make sure that players have won the specified amount of money they were expecting should they get lucky. Overall, the EGBA is the governing body that makes gaming secure. They regulate and monitor online casinos to ensure that consumers are getting what they paid for: fun gaming and the fair chance of winning money.