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Online Casino Case Dropped

The online casino gambling industry in Europe is nearly as controversial as the United States these days. The European Union is actively working with the EU member-states to negotiate the ending of state-run monopolies and instead embrace a gambling market that is open, free, and accessible to foreign EU listed online casinos. The European Commission has aggressively pursued negotiations with most of the Scandinavian countries in the past several years and, more recently, Portugal hit the spotlight.

The European Court of Justice ruling concerning the Portuguese online casino gambling monopolistic regulations has put a damper in the hopes of many internet gambling companies fighting cases with other EU member-states. The UK based Ladbrokes announced that it has dropped the multi-year battle against the Norwegian government in light of the ECoJ ruling. Ladbrokes’ case was specifically related to Norway’s decision to operate a state-run monopoly that blocked out the foreign online casinos and only allowed in-state gambling.

The European Commission has always held that policies that supported closed online casino gambling markets were in violation of EU policies of free trade between member-states. That is not the case though according to the latest ruling. The courts have now upheld a country’s right to operate a gambling monopoly if it has sufficient reasoning for moral and safety issues within the country. With that ruling now in place and setting precedence for the other international countries can take that judgement and justify the continued monopolization of certain markets. There is no telling how this will actually affect companies like Bwin and Ladbrokes as they struggle to enter into currently closed gambling markets.