GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 11 - January 2010

GAMBLING WITHOUT BORDERS: The fight toprotect the European player’s right to choose News Analysis by Vin Narayanan T raditionally, thepoliticalmessageemanating from theonline gambling industryhasbeenanti-prohibitionandpro regulation—any kindof regulation. The logicbehind thepolitical argument isprettyeasy to follow. Prohibitiondoesn’twork. Adults shouldbeallowed todecidehow they spend their ownmoney. Peoplearegoing to findaway togambleonlineeven if it isbanned. If people aregoing to findaway togambleonline,whynot license and regulate it so thereare consumer and social protections? Licensing and regulating it also gives governments an opportunity to tax it,which creates a revenue stream. Licensingand regulations alsoensure fairplay. But as the European online gamblingmarket matures andmoves away from a “onemarket” philosophy to a nation-by-nation jurisdictional ap- proach, it’s becoming clear that not all regulation is good regulation. Italy, for example, requires that online poker services offered to Italian residentsmust be for playing other Italian residents only. Italian poker players arenot allowed toplayonlineagainst players inother countries. Estonia is requiring that servers offering online gamblingmust be locat- ed inEstonia, so Estonian authorities have access to them. And France, which plans to liberalize its online gambling markets this year, has a similar server location requirement–alongwithhigh tax rates andother regulations that keep thebarrier toentryhigh. » » » » » » 37 GamblingWithout Borders