Illegal Online Casino Gambling Hurts
The online casino gambling industry is flourishing all over the world and in
markets that both welcome the pastime and markets that have expressly forbidden
internet gambling. The United States is an example of a huge and flourishing
online gambling market where internet casinos are rampant. Cyprus, a small
island nation that is a part of the European Union, claims that illegal internet
gambling is actually slowly destroying the nation’s economy. The government
claims that the economy is losing about 2.5 billion Euro every year as a result
of illegal land and internet gambling.
The big problem for Cyprus is the fact that the government just doesn’t know how
to stop the illegal gambling without breaking the policies of the European Union
that have strict rules about the movement of goods and services between EU
member-states – these rules include restrictions on online caisno gambling. But
where does that leave the government? Other analysts are calling for the Cyprus
government to pass legislation that regulates the land and online casino
gambling industry, but the Cyprus government is at a loss of where to start.
Efforts were made in the past to this end and the entire situation was a bust
when it was discovered that the foreign specialists hired to draft the new
legislation had ties and interests in the international gambling industry.
The one small hope right now lies within an exemption request by Cyprus to the
European Commission. Cyprus is hoping to win the right to block and ban foreign
online casinos from the EU despite the fact that this would be in direct
contravention of core EU principles. There is little chance that it will pass,
but the government felt it had to act in some way to attempt to stem the
outpouring of euros from the Cyprus economy. |