Posts Tagged ‘EU’
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
The European Union is having problems with gambling regulations. The problems are coming from the fact that most member countries have their own gambling laws to uphold. Their own legislators have worked with the rules to come up with gaming laws that benefit them. A lot of countries made the mistake first of wanting to create monopolies. They believed that if they shored up their rules, they could legally maintain those monopolies and benefit from the money without having to spread it around. It’s a great plan, but it isn’t going to work according to the EU. The EU is maintaining a long lasting ruling of free trade. That is thwarting the plan some countries have regarding to keep money in their own borders, but it is not something they are easily going to be able to work around either.
The fact is that online gambling is a billion dollar business and that means that there are going to be a wide range of players not willing to release that potential of top dollars. They don’t want to pass up any opportunity to wager or to benefit. The problem though is that other governments don’t want to miss out on billions of dollars either. They know that free trade makes it possible for them to move in on other markets and other money. Free trade is proving to be one of the biggest positive attributes of the market today and proving to be a highly coveted asset. The EU has dictated rules well before the question of online gambling came into play. It put forth the rules way back and was meant for other forms of economic trade. Little did legislators know that they would be applying these rules to the world of gambling soon enough. Now that that market is expanding so vigorously it is coming to be one of the biggest assets that gaming companies have. Free trade is what is giving them the chance to market across borders and find new gamers to take advantage of their companies. It may take some time for everyone to get on board, but right now countries are still iffy on the free trade issue. In the future though, they are going to have little choice in the matter.
Tags: EU, Europe, free trade, laws
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Thursday, October 28th, 2010
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.
Tags: EC, EGBA, EU, Europe, gambling, law
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Thursday, October 21st, 2010
One of the biggest problems with EU gambling is bringing everything under one head. The world of gambling is a highly lucrative pursuit and all countries know it. Their legislators are in a hurry to get gambling set up for the market but they also are set on keeping a monopoly for themselves when it comes to payout. The European Court of Justice wants to change that. The EC is part of the European Union and according to them there are free trade laws that govern all markets. That includes gambling. Many counties are trying to shore up rules that keep millions of gambling dollars from moving out of their own country’s borders but that is not working for the government. EU has strict rules about allowing other businesses to move cross borders and that isn’t something that they are going to change just because of the amount of money involved. In fact, because of the amount of money involved they are going to push for an even more strict following of the current trade rules. They want the money to flow into countries, but at the benefit of all parties involved and not just the lottery state.
As of right now, the EU stated that member countries have to open their borders to other gambling markets or they risk breaching the current laws of the EU. That of course comes along with its own list of potential outcomes. It could be that governments may be under a different set of fines if they continue to push for monopolies and refuse to break them up. Due to the amount of money at stake, it could be that the EU puts this issue at the front of their planning too so you can expect that countries are going to fall under those fines sooner than later if they keep on making things difficult to regulate to one norm of operations with gambling. As of right now there are many countries that are affected by the ruling. Austria, Poland, Germany and Denmark are all under the microscope and the EU wants them to get their regulations straight as soon as possible or risk hefty fines until them comply.
Tags: EU, gambling, legal, rules, universal
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Friday, October 15th, 2010
One of the problems that the EU, European Union, has been having is writing a uniform gambling law for member states. There are billions of dollars to be had with gambling and many member states are making it difficult for the EU to break in and change their current laws. They know that if they can protect their monopolies, they can benefit from residents’ gambling dollars without seeing it move to other countries. It is a lot like what happened with the US and the UIGEA. Once it was instituted, legislators expected it to curb all US gambling. Instead, they were surprised when US gamers merely moved to offshore gambling areas for their gaming needs. Of course they ended up channeling millions out of the US economy and that money most likely will never be recovered. EU member states don’t want to give up on the gambling revenue by playing with rules. They want to keep money in their jurisdiction so they can directly benefit from their own peoples’ money. Whether or not that is going to continue for much longer is up to the EU though.
The EU has free trade rules and all member countries have to adhere to it. This means that they cannot legally create monopolies, regardless of how beneficial they may be. They need to open the door for cross marketing and advertising from competing companies. They have to open the door to other companies moving in on their markets. It will push them to improve their own gambling products, but many countries still don’t want that. They are fighting hard and dragging their feet on the issue in the hopes of bringing in as much money as possible. They know that it is hard to come up with money post-recession and want to make the most of it since there are millions available thanks to gambling online. The EU has its work cut out to break up gambling monopolies. It is going to be difficult to get member countries to let go of their bread and butter. Most likely though they will be able to do so once they start fining offending countries.
Tags: EU, free, law, monopoly, trade
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Saturday, October 9th, 2010
The world is still making changes in the world of gambling. Some are coming together to push for gambling laws and others are still lagging behind and denying gambling a place in their markets. Romania is one country that has been trying hard though to come up with a law that holds and would make gambling possible. Part of their big draw of course is the huge tax revenue dollars that are available thanks to the million-dollar nature of gambling as a market. As part of the European Commission though Romania has to present all its gambling initiatives to the group and hope for approval. Unfortunately it didn’t make it this time. The law made up by Romanian legislators is far from compatible with EU law. In fact the EU denied specific provisions stating that they were not built enough to pass their rigorous scrutiny. There is a ban on advertising and marketing for EU-member countries that are not licensed by Romania. This is a major point of contention for the EU review because they deemed it to be “discriminatory” and “unacceptable.” Part of the EU’s main laws are those of free trade and that means all borders are open. Unfortunately a lot of states are trying to slip by while still maintaining their own monopoly over the gambling arena. Monopolies are not allowed though and the EU is denying many states trying to maintain them.
As it stands now the Romanian government will have to make considerable changes to its rules for them to be passed by the EC. The country’s officials did admit that the proposal was merely a draft form so they expected some revisions and criticisms to be in the mix. Many states are putting forth their best efforts when it comes to creating their own gambling laws and regulations. If they are in Europe, they of course have to be vetted by the EC. Without their approval they have to go back to the drawing board for rewrites. The EC is trying to create a uniform gambling law for all member states that follow current rules of trade and commerce that have already been accepted as law.
Tags: debate, EU, law, legal, Romania
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Monday, September 20th, 2010
If you ever wondered whether or not the world of gambling is growing quickly, rest assured that it is. A recent study done by the online casino market bigwigs showed that by 2014, the online casino market will be worth about $7 billion. Yes- billion. It’s no wonder why legislators every where are fighting hard to create the proper legislation to bring gambling into their juridsictions. They know how lucrative the market is and how much they can benefit from bringing it into their borders. Formerly legislators were hampered by the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. It made online gambling illegal, with the exception of lotteriees and animal racing. Though it was meant to police the market, in the end all it did was push US gamblers to start using offshore companies. It fueled millions of dollars out of the country and those dollars will never be recovered by the US. For this reason, legislators are pushing hard for changes that open the door to gambling in the state and benefiting from the money available. They no longer want to pass up the huge dollar potential.
Gambling is growing around the world. Europe for example is also looking at the money generating potential of the activity. Part of the old up in Europe though has been trade laws. Some countries are trying to create monoplies where they can solely benefit from the money coming in via gambling from their residents. Unfortunately, member countries of the EU already committed to the EUs free trade laws. This means that they cannot form monopolies– even if those monopolies mean millions of dollars of revenue are spread out across the market rather than solely theirs. Countries are giving some resistence to the EU, but they most likely will eventually agree to the changes. Hopefully the EU will work with countries to formulate positive gambling laws that are going to allow all parties to benefit. If they can do this, then it may be a greatly beneficial financial time for countries all over the world. Time will tell how far the market goes and how much revenue truly is brought in by the hobby of online gambling.
Tags: EU, gambling, market, revenue
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Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
The EU, European Union, is trying regulate online gambling but it is proving to be a bigger task than anticipated. The goal of th EU was to come up with uniform code regarding member country’s regulations on gambling. Unfortuantely, many member countries already ahve regulations and are not quick to modify them to fit into EU law. It is a difficult time for the market because of the different rules and regulations regarding gambling. For example, the US is having problems because states are at different levels of legalization and regulation. Some are ready to “go live” with online gambling while others are still debating out the rules. If the US government tries next to regulate all of the states’ laws, it will be a considerable task to face. The debates within the country are far from over themselves. Some legislators still believe that laws are not strong enough to protect the gamblers out there and others believe that they are fine. There is a huge disparity in belief systems on the world of gambling as a whole throughout the world.
Right now the Finnish government is trying to alter their current enforcemtn of foreign and illegal online casino websites. These websites are easily soliciting Finnish gamers through hefty marketing and advertising to the market. Gamers are looking for the best deals and outside companies are the ones providing them to get a handle on the country’s market. Unfortunately, Scandinavia is now working with the EU’s rules and making it clear that a resolution is not up for grabs any time soon. Right now the Scandinavian countries involved have their own monopoly on the market and are trying to protect it. The EU has a main rule of free trade however and that does not support a monopoly. Finnish government officials are going to have to alter their rules, but they are going to hold out as long as possible due to the huge price tag that comes along with maintaining that monopoly. They don’t want to thin out the gaming public and share it with other gaming companies because it means a loss of potentially millions for them.
Tags: EU, Finland, monopoly, Scandinavia
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Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
The world of gambling is changing and expanding. If you look at the growth of gambling, you are going to see huge growth. In particular the European market is expanding at an alarming rate. Though there is some debate due to the EUs rules. It seems that a lot of member countries of the European Union are trying to write their own rules. They are trying to protect their own monopolies of the gambling industry. This unfortunately is not working. Member countries know how lucrative gambling is and that is making them desperate to keep money within their country. The EU though has a law on free trade and all member countries have to adhere. This has been a sticking point for member countries but they are slowly changing their minds with more pressure from the EU.
One big change is that gaming companies are seeing how lucrative gambling is and that means that there are companies pushing into the market. Sync2 Networks is one of them—the company just released information stating that it is going to soon move into the European market. It is focused on the gambling market and any European internet company for that matter. Sync2 Networks has the capability of working with online companies to help them build their brands and expand their own technical knowhow. This in turn, should bring them more business and make Sync2 Networks a premiere company for online business development. One other issue the company is tackling is helping companies to integrate affiliates into their business models. Overall Sync2 Networks is set up to take over the market of online business development in the European countries. Right now the company is trying to build its own name within the market and sees the increase in gambling companies as a way to take hold. Though companies are in the market already, they are highly competitive and that push to be unique in the market may be enough to give Sync2 Networks the business it needs. So far the company has a great history and taking on a new market as large as the European one should do good to put the company on the map relatively quickly.
Tags: EU, Europe, market, networks, Sync2
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Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
If you want to see tremendous online growth then look to the UK and the European gaming markets. Both locations are building huge casino operations and making extensive changes. They know how much money is at stake in the world of online gambling and they want in. The UK in particular has a roster of very competitive online companies who want to take hold of the gambling community. They are working hard to advertise and bring customers to their virtual doors. It isn’t just slots or poker that are taking hold—among the biggest hitters are the betting brands. They are seeing a lot of success in the world of gaming in the UK and Europe. In particular the World Cup recently brought in a record number of bets and people who wanted to wager on their favorites for the competition. Also, surprisingly bingo websites have made a big splash in the initial market as of late.
When it comes to making a good online casino, diversity deems to be key and operators are focusing on that. They know that to bring people in bonuses and specials are needed, but to keep them wagering takes a variety of games. They are focusing on offering a wider selection than ever for any gamer. In Europe, the EU is trying to regulate gaming and that is posing to be a problem due to the various laws already in place in various member states. A lot of them are also trying to thinly veil a monopoly of their gambling market. They want to protect it and keep money for their own governments. This is proving to be difficult though with the free trade laws, and having to answer to the EU for rules that are contradictory to it. Still, the UK and Europe are pushing ahead in their moves to bring in legalized online gambling. The money is proving to be too hard to pass up and legislators are confident that with some time and deliberations they can come up with workable regulations to bring legalized gambling into the areas with as few incidents as possible.
Tags: bingo, EU, gambling, UK
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Monday, August 9th, 2010
Free trade is an issue that the EU has been focusing on over the past few years due to the rise on online gambling as a viable market. More and more companies are offering gambling and that means that it may take some time to sort through the rules. Free trade of course is a premiere law of the EU and every market has to adhere to that. Many countries of the EU in the past have tried to get around the free trade laws when it comes to gambling. They have unsuccessfully tried to form a monopoly in gaming around their country. The EU quickly stepped in and put an end to that issue by noting that it was against EU policy for anyone to close off the market for the purpose of being the sole provider. That is completely contradictory to what the law states regarding free trade and the EU is not going to let that happen.
In order for Poland to remain in the EU it is going to have to alter its rules regarding gambling. The lottery that is currently held and very popular is a prototype of sorts for the country’s legislators to work with the GTech G2 organization. If they can create a workable situation for the lottery that benefits all parties involved, without stifling any trade agreements already instituted, then this model could be used to further expand gambling in the Polish market. It may take some time for the issues to be sorted out, but most likely gambling law will be written shortly. The reality is that there are millions, possibly billions, of dollars avaialble through gambling and its legalization. Countries may try to form monopolies to protect those billions, but third-party regulators like the EU are going to step in to make sure that other laws already being enforced are not broken. It will take some time for things to get settled, but with the huge price tag that online gambling’s legalization and regulation is giong to bring, is enough of an impetus for gamers, legislators and the EU to work together to find viable solutions.
Tags: EU, legislation, Poland, trade
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