EU Court rules in favor of international online gambling companies

Regulators around the world are devising the most practical guidelines for online gambling. However, questions concerning the appropriate action for international online poker sites entering the markets of other European Union nations recently arose. CasinoAdvisor reports that the European Court of Justice ruled in favor of companies seeking to offer online blackjack and other forms of internet gambling in different countries.

The ruling also touched on the fact that those nations which have been excluding international gaming companies have given domestic providers an unfair advantage. This violates previously-instated legislation protecting the rights of EU nations to offer equal treatment to one another.

For example, Stanleybet, an online sport-betting company based out of the U.K., was denied entry into the Italian market. BusinessWeek reports that Italy has a system where betting companies can place bids to be awarded licenses to operate within the Mediterranean nation, but Stanleybet was blocked from doing so. Other U.K.-based companies have been granted access in the past, but the news source indicates court officials castigated the Italian government for the unclear nature of the application process.

The EU, a collective of 27 European nations, is designed to allow these countries to work together. Do you think the new ruling will allow international gambling to occur more freely in the EU? Could it possibly serve as a model for intrastate gambling in the U.S.?

Published on 17 February 2012