Online Gambling In The EU

Online gambling thrives in the EU, indeed it is one of the fastest growing sectors of the shared economy, but it isn\'t all plain sailing for gamblers or those that provide services to them

The European Union, or EU, is now a 28 country strong political and economic union that spans 1.6 million square miles and contains, at present, some 507 million people. Governing through supranational institutions and intergovernmental agreements the actual European Parliament is elected once every five years and was born out of the organizations set up at the end of World War II to unify the nations of Europe in an attempt to make war unthinkable and materially impossible.

The European Coal & Steel community gave way to the European Economic Community in the fifties and successive organizations have continued the same efforts towards the unification of a disparate group of nations that has grown substantially from it\'s six nation origins. In 1993 the Maastricht Treaty created citizenship of the EU and the subsequent Treaty of Lisbon introduced a bill of rights, including the right for nations to leave the EU if they so choose.

Internet Gambling In The EU
• Gaining popularity year on year
• Revenues to top 13 billion Euros in 2015
• National differences create issues

Theoretically a free market exists within the EU between member states but the opening up of protected markets has been slow and some remain closed to foreign businesses or operate under local restrictive regulation. The various nations have very different attitudes to gambling, and those are reflected in their national gambling laws, which supersede EU gambling laws. Thus online service providers might in theory have access to the huge market potential of the EU, in practice that isn\'t entirely the case.

Consumers too may find themselves in a nation where the typical tussle of local party politics has thrown up barriers to gambling or accessing online casinos in the EU despite being residents of a nation that is part of the EU. The process of harmonizing markets across the EU is ongoing and likely to be a lengthy one, but the die is cast and it is only a matter of time before what took off in the mid-nineties comes home to roost in the 21st century.

Online Gambling Arrives In Europe

The technological leap forward that the internet provided allowed a whole host of new activities to be facilitated and it wasn\'t just the computer game freaks that found something to do online. The provision of the first sportsbooks and gaming sites kick started a wave of developments in which demand led technology to develop at an accelerated rate and competition kept the fickle consumer at the center of design. The giants of the business today that operate throughout those nations in the EU that permit them to do so have grown the industry since these beginnings into an expansive business with massive growth.

The Many Online Gambling Jurisdictions Of The EU

century. One of the fundamental issues with online gambling in the EU is the interface between the community members and the central European bureaucracy and then its somewhat jaundiced relationship with the internet and the technology that drives it. Each member state has its own gambling laws and regulations which means providers of say an EU poker room must adhere to those in order to operate in that nation, and given some of those requirements can be quite stringent can create legal problems for both players and providers. The range of attitudes is remarkable, although perhaps not when you consider the EU has 24 official languages.

Online Gambling In The EU: Where One Size Doesn\'t Fit All

The complexity of the EU\'s various legal jurisdictions are not, however, the only challenge to a market whose members only share history that tends to involve killing each other. Cultural differences are huge from north to south and east to west, living standards are by no means even and the banking crisis left many nations within the EU cobbling together “austerity” budgets to cut back on expenditure and tighten their belts. Providers have to do more than just provide translation and with customer demand leading the way customer service in a familiar language is right behind it.

Paying To Play In the EU Today

Whilst the cultural familiarity of a site might make a player choose it over a rival in a straight contest twixt the two, the major factor in a gamblers choice of site providing internet betting in the EU will be the accessibility of payment, and the ease with which he or she can transfer monies to and, with any luck, from their chosen site. There are various standard methods of payment available on most sites with the best of them offering an all-encompassing range of options that cater to players both inside the EU and much, much further afield.

The EU; A World Of Difference For Online Gambling

With national governments policies still trumping those of the central European Union, particularly the lackluster observance of Article 49 of the Treaty On European Union that stipulates markets, particularly service markets, should be open to all companies licensed to operate in any of the other countries. Sadly this doesn\'t reflect reality and despite the efforts of the European Gaming & Betting Commission the full and open market envisioned in the treaty is still a long way off, with any change likely to be slow in coming, letting the law once again lag behind the demands of consumers on the internet.

New Technology & Age Old Crimes

As with every other internet facility security has become a major issue for all concerned in the online gambling business. A sites reputation can be sullied by even the slightest slip in security. The public are constantly warned of the dangers by an old school media that loathes the competition, and the introduction of PayPal has done much to remove the danger from all but the most haphazard of internet users. As an industry the online gambling world has done much to counter the rather inflated sense of mistrust the public have in transactions of that type.

The Future Of Online Gambling In The EU

It is reasonably forecast that the revenues from online gambling in 2015 will reach 13 billion Euros and take a growing 15% of the overall gambling market within the EU. These figures are up considerably year on year and demonstrate a sustained growth that will only be increased as more nations chase the revenues from gambling rather than merely attempting to prohibit it and failing to do so. Mobile casinos are the trend today but the future is likely to bring in more technology to provide an ever easier service that conforms to the desires of the public at the time.