Europe Doing its Own Thing
 
July 8, 2009

Online gambling has taken on a life of its own in many countries, not just the United States. However, when the US passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, and didn’t really incur any serious repercussions, many other countries realized that there was something to breaking out on your own.
 
There are several European Nations that have now decided that they are going to do what they want when it comes to online gambling. At least seven online gambling companies have decided that they are going to make their own rules and regulations for online gambling according to a new study.
 
The report finds that these various countries are looking into changing their online gambling rules, and they are not sure that they want to have to answer to anyone regarding them – including the European Union. To which of course the EU is in a tizzy because without a central set of standards some countries will take advantage of others.
 
For example, say Germany has a ton of online gambling patrons, and they make it a monopoly within their country. Well, perhaps France does not have as many online gambling patrons, but they have online casinos, they would lose significant amounts of revenue because they are not as big a state as the others are.
 
They say that what they need to have happen is for the US to overturn the UIGEA and then they believe that things will get back to normal. The only sites that the EU wants to see blocked in any country are those that are not regulated and therefore are not safe for their residents.

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