France, Italy And Austria May Get In Trouble For Banning Online Gambling

from the different-continents,-different-rules dept

While the US is going out of its way to ban online gambling, it appears that some European countries aren’t going to have it that easy. The European Commission is threatening legal action against France, Italy and Austria for their own efforts to stop online gambling. Similar to the situation in the US where some online gambling executives have been arrested recently, France apparently arrested some online gambling execs as well. However, the European Commission charges that some of these activities may go against certain EU-wide laws that mandate open access to services throughout the EU. The specific problem here is that it appears these countries have state monopolies on gambling. So, they allow it, but only if they’re the ones running it — and that policy is what’s causing the problems. In other words, the problem here isn’t necessarily having to do with any sense of morality or protecting people, but more about who gets to profit from the gambling (though, of course, some would argue that’s really what’s at work here in the US as well).


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Comments on “France, Italy And Austria May Get In Trouble For Banning Online Gambling”

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8 Comments
dorpus says:

Re: Re: Vassal State

What, you’re not aware that the Chechens aren’t the new Sicilians of European crime? Sicilians have grown rich and soft, while the Chechens do the dirtier work that Sicilians don’t want to do anymore.

If gambling cannot be regulated under UK law, what’s to prevent mafias from taking more control? Which Brussels bureaucrats are being paid off?

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Re: Vassal State

Troll,

You still didn’t respond to his question:

“Chechen mafia? Where do you get your inspiration to make up such foundless allegations?”

“What, you’re not aware that the Chechens aren’t the new Sicilians of European crime?!” is not a fact, it’s your opinion.

Stop being a loser chink and back your shit up.

dorpus_is_a_troll says:

Re: Re: Re: Vassal State

Yawn!

First off I’ll correct your mafia knowledge. The Chechens are big in the former USSR, not Europe. The Albanian mafia are one of the biggest in Europe right now. You can read more about that here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechen_mafia
and here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_mafia

Secondly, why can’t gambling be regulated under UK law? It is, and it will continue to do so in an effective manner. Money laundering will probably be attempted by someone but it would never work. The UKs Gambling Commision would see to it.
http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/Client/index.asp

Also, if some crime gang did want to launder money then wouldn’t be easier to operate in an unregulated country? Why doesn’t the US ban Casinos based in unregulated countries? Easy, because it’s about taxation, not crime.

Doprus I don’t expect you to answer these questions but I do look forward to your next random made up facts with great interest. Perhaps a career with the RIAA beckons!

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