Summit of European Gaming Regulators Held in Rome

Regulators meet as unregulated gambling deprives governments of tax revenue

Gaming regulators from France, Spain, Germany, the UK, Poland, Portugal and Italy met in Rome earlier this month to discuss information sharing and the exchange of good practices. Much of this concerned sharing market data to improve regulation as well as prevent the growth of unregulated gambling services.

Unlicensed online gambling has become an increasingly important issue for European gaming providers and governments in recent years. This is because more and more unregulated online casinos are cropping up all of the time, and because the ongoing fiscal crisis means that governments need new sources of tax revenue. Improving regulation could help prevent non-tax paying providers from operating.

Spain of particular importance

In no country is this more crucial than in Spain. Its economic situation is one of the worst on the continent and the government is heavily indebted. While Spanish gambling laws charge high taxes on operators in order to bring in revenue, many argue that high tax rates simply encourage gambling to go underground.

Spain has been in the gambling news a lot lately, mostly stemming from Sheldon Adelson’s cancellation of the “EuroVegas” mega-casino project in Madrid. The project would have created thousands of jobs and put money into the public budget. However, Adelson decided to pull out after the government refused to meet his very picky demands.