EU Unveils Online Gambling Mission

The European Union on Monday unveiled plans to improve safeguards for money laundering activities via online gambling websites.

The EU mission also looks to prevent match fixing while protecting players against fraud.

From Bloomberg News:

The European Commission will also speed up probes into whether national restrictions on online gambling firms are legal in a bid to clarify market-access rules for the industry, according to an EU official.

The measures will be included in an action plan for the online gaming and betting industry to be published tomorrow by Michel Barnier, the EU’s financial services chief, said the official, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t yet public.

The European High Court has reviewed a series of cases brought on behalf of online betting companies to determine whether state monopolies can legally block them from operating freely across the 27-nation region.

Ironically, the Brussels-based Commission is based in a nation, Belgium, that has been among the most aggressive when it comes to blocking foreign wagering firms from operating within its borders.  Belgium has even gone as far as to impose a “black list” of operators. 

Nations like Belgium and Germany tend to justify the curbs on the basis that they are needed to protect citizens from gambling addiction and to prevent crime, according to Bloomberg News. 

- Gilbert Horowitz, Gambling911.com