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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.

Many countries are still playing with taxation laws when it comes to wagering. There isn’t anything totally written in stone as of yet and countries are writing their own laws. Some are proving to be more acceptable than others though. France is a country that is having some problems with its taxation laws. Legislators were recently charged with coming up with viable laws for taxing gambling companies within the borders, but they are now under criticism for creating taxation that is too high for the internet gambling world to support. Many industry insiders are bringing up issues to the French government that state its too-high tax laws along with its too-low returns for gaming companies. In fact at the recent Monte Carlo for Monaco iGaming conference 888.com’s CEO David Zerah stated just that—he believes that French laws could hurt the gaming market and even keep some gaming companies from trying to set up shop in France altogether.

The biggest problem, Zerah stated, is that French officials wrote laws that purposefully are too difficult and will keep gaming companies from joining the French online network. Other executives at the conference agreed with Zerah’s assessment. They too believe that France is setting itself up for disaster on the issue and is going to be hard pressed to find gaming companies that want to venture into their borders. With little returns, why should they? They have so many other options that keep them going financially so much easier. Gaming companies have the chance to be picky these days—just like gamers do. There are enough options in the market that if a bad option presents itself, they don’t have to “live with it” like other industries may. Gaming companies work hard to cut corners because they know that costly licensing and taxation can considerably eat away at their own profits and stifle them from growth. The last thing they want is to create huge followings, bring in billions, but have to contribute enormous amounts of that money directly to just keeping their virtual doors open in one country. They can easily pass up housing themselves in the French market and work out of other countries if things get too difficult. The French government has been warned.

Just like the rest of the world Canada is weighing out its gambling options. The country is hoping to legalize and regulate gambling successfully but it already is having problems. Studies are showing that a record number of residents are moving forward with gambling. The market is growing exponentially and that means that it needs to be ready for the huge surge in customers. Over the past few months the recession has made it difficult for gamers. A lack of discretionary funds has made gambling a low priority on the list of activities. People had to cut back on spending, vacations, luxuries and of course gambling. It made things difficult for operators and many had to tap into their cash reserves to survive. Canada is the same—operators have been struggling and now legislators are pushing for rewriting of codes.

One of the main problems is that the current rules being followed are not sufficient to protect players, according to lawmakers. They believe that an immediate rewording of laws needs to happen before more people are hurt financially and emotionally. In question are the “self-exclusion laws.” In these laws, casinos are to maintain a list of gamblers who believe that they either have addictions or could have addictions. Their names are then checked on a list and they aren’t allowed entry to the casino. This opting out of casino gambling is a good move—if it worked. Unfortunately throughout the past it has failed. More than a few players who were on the self-exclusion list were allowed entry to casinos in the various provinces of the area. They played games and one even won. Gaming critics say that casino operators will maintain the self-exclusion list, but few are eager to follow it. It is a great way for a casino to continue taking a player’s money and then have an immediate out if he or she wins. They can fall back on the law that says they should not have been at a casino table to begin with and therefore are not eligible for the win. Of course they would be informed of this after spending hundreds, maybe thousands, at the casino’s various games. It’s a win-win situation for gambling operators to be lax in enforcing the self-exclusion rules at the door. Once rules are made safe for gambling addicts, then online casinos will be the next target.

Part two coming next.

Right2Bet is issuing a challenge.  The promotional campaign is divided into three different operations. First the company is placing €10 bets on football matches to find a “best priced” operator. Next they are begging on the Dutch gambling De Lotto and finally they are betting on the French state-owned Francaise des Jeux.  Any difference in winnings will be donated to charity, but the point of the experiment is to note that the formerly banned commercial operators offer the best value to customers in Europe.

Right2Bet hopes to encourage the European Union to implement its own cross-boundary laws and encourage individual governments to strip away restrictions. The organization has worked hard in the past to bring a universal law to the marketplace. With the growing movement towards legalizing gambling, many countries are setting their own rules and regulations regarding procedures and taxation.  It is causing many problems since there is no universal law to work through. The Right2Bet campaign is aimed at the many short-sighted national government obstacles to online gambling across Europe.

The other danger is that protectionism has become common among nations trying to shield state monopolies from fair and open competition despite the current rules of the European Union treaty. Many countries are trying to block other countries from entering their industry. Due to the huge billions of dollars available in the market, many countries are trying to capitalize on the moneys available. Right2Bet has come up with many campaigns and where gambling is concerned, they believe that the laws have been mostly ignored. Although the EU does have some regulations to deal with, they are so vast they are ineffective. The rules are somewhat the same as the US UIGEA. Though the UIGEA was supposed to stop illegal gambling, the wording used did little to actually address gambling. Instead it targeted the banking industry’s transactions for gambling activities. It gave banks the responsibility to monitor and deny any transactions that were related to gambling. Looking at the law again however, it failed to define what “gambling” entails. That was a serious mistake and is now being debated throughout various jurisdictions in the country.