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Commissioner Will Take Issue to Court

The European Commissioner is essentially fed up with the several EU member nations that currently operate online casinos gambling monopolies regardless of the principles and policies laid out in the EU agreements between nations. Germany, Sweden, and now the Netherlands have all adopted protectionist legislation that excludes foreign operators from accessing the online casinos gamblers in these nations. And rather than simply banning internet gambling altogether, the three nations support government-run gambling monopolies. The Commissioner has recently sent warning letters to each of the three governments – each country has a deadline to alter exclusionary practices before the Commissioner brings the nations before the European Court of Justice.

The EU Commissioner, Charlie McCreevy, feels that the Dutch government is abusing the priviledges on operating as a part of the EU because the country is allowing the expansion of online casinos gambling, yet specifically eliminating the right of other nations to access Dutch gamblers. A letter of correspondence to the Dutch government from McCreevy was recently leeks to a news service. In that correspondence the Commissioner points to expansions within the country’s lottery service as an example of where the Dutch government is expanding online casinos and gambling, but at the same time making it criminal for financial institutions to process foreign gambling transactions.

And with Germany passing a similar ban on foreign online casinos, the Commissioner is ready to bring these countries up before the ECJ. At the point that the issue goes to the ECJ, the governments will have to either comply with the court’s rulings or face very heavy fines for violating the EU policies. Most in industry analysts expect that the governments will reopen the online gambling markets to foreign operators once the issue is taken to the courts, but not before that point.