The online gambling market in Europe isn’t turning out to be as unified as everyone expected. The European Union Treaty actually had provisions to ensure a uniform online gambling market throughout Europe. But gambling operators in Europe have quickly discovered that what’s real on paper isn’t real in the countries they operate in. Or in other words, every country is setting up their own rules, regulations and application process. And the European Court of Justice has been ruling in favor of the countries’ right to set their own rules rather than enforcing a single standard.
The result? Well, online gambling operators benefit more by jumping through the hoops and getting individual licenses to operate in a variety of countries than to get bogged down in the legal battles. So they’re applying for licenses and working to meet the requirements country by country. But the some, such as the Remote Gambling Association (RGA), are calling for harmonization of the industry. Perhaps a process that would allow regulators to exchange at least partial recognition between one another so that every country doesn’t have to recreate the same gambling infrastructure over and over. And so that gambling operators wouldn’t have to repeat the application process again and again in different variations.
All of this does stands as lesson to the United States where some states are calling for a federal solution to the online gambling question rather than state by state legislation. Because if the US requires gambling operators to apply state by state, that would require 50 states creating 50 different bodies to regulate and approve the online casinos and 50 different processes for online casinos to follow.