It seems that Greece is content to ignore the European Commission when it comes to their online gambling regulations. Today the country is pushed forward with its online gambling plan, despite the European Commission saying it is not compatible with European Union laws.

Among the regulations that could make the Greek plan incompatible with EU laws are the tight restrictions on new licenses and the limited number of licenses available. Also, though the Greek government is trying to sell the current monopoly OPAP, it now turns out that Greece wants to retain management of the business. They would then give OPAP special privileges that gives it an advantage over foreign competition.

All of this was pointed out to Greece recently by the European Commission, but instead of responding to that by revising their plan, Greece is content to push forward. Today Greece’s parliament passed the online gambling reforms as part of an omnibus bill by a voice vote. The European Commission is now likely to issue a legal challenge to the reforms, due to unfair competitive practices and an environment that could scare off potential investors. The protectionist online gambling laws could result in a hefty fine from the European Commission, which is exactly the last thing a country sinking from debt needs.

Betfair is one of the online gambling companies that has been the most critical of Greece’s online gambling reforms. Martin Cruddace, their chief legal and regulatory affairs officer, said today that the Greece law is in “stark contravention of EU law.” The courts will soon decide that matter.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Cyprus’s plans to ban online gambling have been delayed. Because they are part of the European Union, their bill has to be approved by the EU before it can become a law. Cyprus sent the bill to the EU back in September, believing that there was plenty of time to get feedback from the EU and then pass the bill by the end of the year. Not it is clear that it won’t happen in 2010.

Originally, the EU intended to respond to the Cypriot request by December 14. Then that day came and went. The EU now says that the deadline to make a decision on the bill has been pushed back until March 14. When announcing the pushed back deadline, the EU stated that it was in part due to input received from Malta.

As you are probably aware, Malta is one of the biggest online gambling hubs in the world. They are home to a number of Maltese-licensed casinos. If Cyprus makes it illegal for Cypriot citizens to gamble online, Malta stands to lose some business. For that reason, some in the Cyprus government are blaming Mata.

According to Ionas Nicolaou, Vice President of the Democratic Rally (DISY), Malta and the United Kingdom are trying to sabotage their efforts to ban online gambling for their own self-interest. My opinion: Maybe you shouldn’t have joined the European Union if you didn’t want other countries meddling in your business and interfering in your government for their own gain.

Nicolaou said that “the interventions and comments by Malta and the United Kingdom were made purposely as online gambling is licensed in both countries and they receive huge amounts of money for those licenses.”

In the Cypriot draft bill, the country would ban online poker and all online casino games. Online sports betting, however, would remain legal and the a new government agency would be created to give out licenses to those who wished to operate in the market.

It will be a little longer before Denmark’s online gambling market is open for competitive business. The deadline for accepting competition from overseas has been pushed back, giving the state-run monopoly more time as the only legal game in town.

Dansk Spil, the Danish internet gambling monopoly, has long been free from competition, but after the European Commission ruled that their monopoly violates EU rules of free trade within member states, they had to change. Still, they allowed a six-month period to prepare, which was needed to do due diligence, scrutinize applicants and more. Some believe that the delay was simply to give Dansk Spil an advantage over the competition.

Though the online gambling market was set to open to competition in January 2011 – which is less than a month away – it has been pushed back to the summer of 2011. The delay is due in part to a number of complaints about the tax rates proposed by the Danish government. Complaints about the taxes have been lodged with the European Commission.

The proposed law, which might end up being changed if it is not approved by the EU, calls for a 20% tax on the gross amount of money won on all games. In addition, there is an annual licensing fee for each online gambling operator that ranges from €7,000 to €200,000. The licensing fee varies depending on the amount of revenue for the gambling website.

Troels Lund Poulsen, who is the Danish Minister of Taxation, insists that there is nothing rotten in the state of Denmark. He plans to go to the European Commission directly to sort out the problem with the tax rate and ensure that the law and tax rates are in compliance with EU law.

This is one of the problems – one of many – with giving up your nation’s sovereignty to join a collective, such as the European Union. EU nations can’t simply pass their own laws and then be done with it. Those laws then have to be submitted to the EU’s European Commission (EC) or European Court of Justice (ECJ) to ensure that the law is not in violation of EU rules and laws. In the case of online gambling legislation that has become more popular in Europe, this has become a major issue.

Romania is the newest country to have their online gambling laws run afoul of the European Union rules. A recent draft law liberalizing online gambling in the nation was sent to the EC for review and the ruling was that it is not compatible with EU law. As is often the case, the rules rejected by the EU relate to protecting the interests of Romania, because the EU isn’t a fan of a member state looking out for their own best interest.

The Romanian online gambling draft law requires applicants for licenses to locate their servers in Romania. In addition, it only allows online gambling companies to advertise and market in Romania if they possess a Romanian gambling license. According to the Romanian government, such provisions are in the law in order to protect the people. Having the servers located in the country makes them easy for Romanian regulators to inspect. The ban on unlicensed advertising is meant to make sure only trusted companies can cater to the Romanian market.

The European Commission, when rejecting the draft law, instead said that the real reason for the provisions was protectionism, making sure Romania benefits from the gambling revenue and licensing revenue. That may be true, but why is that a bad thing? To the EU, it is, because they want every member state acting in the interests of the collective instead of in their own interests. Again, that is the problem with surrendering your sovereignty.

Now it is back to the drawing board for Romania, who must draft new legislation that meets the EU’s requirements. In the meantime, the people of Romania will suffer from not having a gambling law passed.

The new gambling legislation in Belgium is already being challenged. Two powerful online gambling lobbies, the Remote Gambling Association (RGA) and the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) have filed a complaint with the European Commission, stating that the law violates European Union rules.

As has been the case every other time someone has petitioned the EU about a European nation’s gambling laws, it comes down to foreign competition. According to the complaint, the new Belgian law places barriers for foreign competition in their online gambling market. Though the law doesn’t ban overseas operators, it requires applications for internet gambling licenses to first participate in the land-based market. For domestic operators, that isn’t a problem. For overseas online casinos, though, that is only possible if they open a brick and mortar casino in Belgium, which none want to do. Few European online casinos are involved in any land-based businesses. The complaint also states that online casinos would need to have servers, equipment and personnel located in Belgium permanently.

Instead of protecting consumers, it seems that the Belgian government is using their gambling laws to protect their land-based casinos from foreign competition. Such a thing is not permitted by EU free-trade rules.

In the complaint, the RGA stated that the Belgian law “completely ignores the obligations and safeguards to which foreign operators are already subject in their member state of establishment.” CEO Clive Hawkswood stated that the policy of protectionism will actually hurt Belgian consumers because it will “only serve to reduce the value and choice available to them.”

Belgian lawmakers insist that the legislation is legitimate and that it is intended to protect their people and ensure that all online casinos available to their citizens are safe. However, according to the EGBA, the response was nothing other than Belgian waffling.

There has been no comment yet from the European Union.

In a surprise move, the European Union’s Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the Netherlands could block Ladbrokes and Betfair, the popular bookmaker and betting exchange, from offering bets to Dutch gamblers if the reason for the ban was to protect against “fraud and crime.”

All members of the European Union have a free trade agreement that prohibits banning foreign goods from another EU nation in favor of domestic competition. For that reason, in 2008 the Dutch Supreme Court asked the ECJ to rule on whether their position of banning those sites was compatible with EU law.

Representatives from Ladbrokes and Betfair were predictable disappointed. They say that while the Netherlands claim to be concerned with gambling addiction and corruption, their real reason for the ban is to preserve the state-run monopoly on the gambling market in the form of De Lotto.

A spokesman from Ladbrokes said that the stance of the Netherlands was “hard to reconcile with its expansive gambling policy, which is characterized by the introduction and active advertising, marketing and promotion of new gaming products.”

It seems that the Netherlands thinks that gambling is dangerous unless it’s under the control of their government. That’s a common theme among the more authoritative governments and as a monarchy, the Netherlands certainly belongs to that group. I guess Queen Beatrix doesn’t trust the people to make their own decisions about what kinds of bets to make and what people to do business with. Therefore, she will make the decision for you. How kind and protective of her.

In response to the ECJ ruling, Betfair’s European public affairs chief, Tim Phillips, said that the judgment “once again demonstrates the need for the European Commission to take a lead on this issue, so that we can…settle the online gambling debate once and for all.” He and others calls for the EC to pass online gambling legislation at the EU level that would strictly and clearly state the rules each member nation must follow regarding online gambling.

The European Union (EU) is kind of funny. They love to regulate and control the lives of the citizens of its member states and they love to control all business, but if someone actually stands up to them and says no, they don’t know what to do. That is because, despite all of their power and greed, the EU is still basically spineless.

Whenever a member country defies EU rules, they respond in much the same way as the United Nations: they tell you that they don’t like it. Do it again and you might get a friendly letter reminding you of the EU laws. Keep doing it and the letters may get less pleasant. Keep doing it after that and who knows what will happen? They might condemn you.

As part of the EU’s Free Trade Agreement creates a single set of rules and regulations for commerce between its member nations. Each member nation must accept and abide by the EU rules and the result is supposed to be a simplified and more inclusive market. The problem is that nations aren’t following the rules. Estonia is the latest to defy the EU’s regulations on online gambling.

Under EU rules, countries must accept all European-based online casinos and related sites, giving no preference based on origin. Estonia has recently begun licensing online gambling operators, but only those that are not included on their blacklist. Several things can land a casino on the blacklist, with one of them being having your operations based outside of Estonia. The country is giving preference to casinos based inside their borders and excluding foreign competition, a practice that is strictly prohibited under EU rules.

So far there has been no response from the European Union, but these things take time. After all, for some time now Germany, France and Greece have been ignoring the EU regulations and giving preference to their own casinos. Spain is giving tax breaks to customers who win money at Spanish casinos but none if you win at a foreign site.

Meanwhile, there has been little response from the EU. They now have a new Internal Markets Commissioner, who has drafted a paper and sent it to each member nation reminding them of the free trade rules. Now that a new country has joined in the defiance, you wonder what is next.

Who would have guessed that getting a bunch of independent countries to agree on having the exact same laws would be difficult? Oh, I guess anyone with intelligence would. For whatever reason, that either didn’t occur to those who pushed for the establishment of a European Union back in 1993 or they just didn’t care.

In any case, if you’ve been following online gambling news you probably have noticed that there have been a lot of disputes between the European Union (EU) and its member countries about gambling. One of the things the EU is supposed to provide for its member countries is free trade. However, several countries either have a ban on foreign online casinos or give incentives for their citizens to use the casinos in their own country instead. The EU doesn’t like that.

You don’t want to make the EU mad, because when they get mad, they react about as harshly as the United Nations: They tell you that you’re being bad and ask you to stop. If you continue being bad, they’ll say that they’re getting really mad and really want you to stop. If you keep doing it, you can expect an angry letter.

The EU now has a new Internal Markets Commissioner, Michel Barnier, who resolves to end this problem once and for all. How? By drafting a paper that clearly outlines the EU’s position on online gambling, of course. He will then send the paper to each member country to remind them that these are the rules that they must follow. Not only that, but it will call out the countries that are violating the EU laws by pointing out what they’re doing wrong. Ooh, that’s gotta hurt.

So who’s ignoring the EU? A few countries right now. France, Germany and Greece have laws that give an advantage to state-run monopolies over foreign online casinos. Spain is a little more covert with their subversion. Though there is no law that gives an advantage to Spanish casinos, their tax code does. The Spanish government offers a tax break on winnings from gambling at Spanish-run casinos. If you win money from a foreign casino, however, you have to shoulder the full tax burden. For that reason, there is significant incentive for Spanish citizens to gamble using the state-run monopolies. Finland is a little more daring. They placed an outright ban on foreign online casinos, making it only legal to gamble using one of the two Finnish gambling companies.

You may be wondering where the new Internal Markets Commissioner is from. Well, Mr. Barnier happens to be from France, which is one of the countries defying the EU rules on online gambling. Maybe this will get interesting after all. France may get a very special letter from Barnier, which would basically say “I’m really disappointed in you. Oh, yeah, and you’re making me look bad.”

The European Union doesn’t always side with freedom, or capitalism for that matter, so a recent decision by the EU shouldn’t come as a surprise. The EU’s highest court ruled that Portugal’s state-run monopoly of online gambling is legal. Their reason was that the country controls the entire market as a way to combat illegal gambling. Right, if you let just anyone run the business, who knows what they will do?

The European Union court, located in Luxembourg, heard appeals from online casinos Liga and Bwin, who were fined for operating within the Portuguese market controlled by the state-run monopoly. The EU has rules that ensure companies can provide products and services across EU borders. According to the court, though, such freedom of commerce can be restricted if the public interest is at stake. According to the court, “games of chance involve a high risk of criminal activity or fraud” and online gambling has a “different and more substantial risk of fraud compared with traditional markets for such games.”

The ruling opens the door for other countries within the EU to monopolize online gambling and crowd other online casinos out of the market. Currently, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Greece are involved in court disputes regarding their online gambling monopolies. In addition, the same ruling could be used for other products that can be seen as affecting public interest. Maybe soon Germany will have a monopoly on beer. After all, if you let just anyone sell beer, just think of the potential for criminal activity. The possibilities are wide open. It’s a bad time to own a business in the EU. Actually, come to think of it, it’s a bad time to be in the EU at all, for a variety of reasons.

As the French government has set to legalize and regulate online gambling in the country, they have run into a few stumbling blocks. Provisions in their bill that would restrict online gambling to online casinos located in France have met resistance from the European Union. Other provisions were in violation of various European laws. France responded by doing what France does best: surrendering. France capitulated to the demands of the EU and removed the contested provisions.

The provision requiring online casinos to have fiscal correspondence within France was scrapped, much to the delight of overseas casinos and much to the chagrin of French government officials that love collecting taxes. There are still some provisions that are being challenged, such as limits on fund transfers and the question on whether or not sports betting will be legal.

Despite any conflicts with the EU, experts believe that a vote on online gambling will occur early next year and licenses for online casinos could be given out as early as May of 2010. It would be a sad day if France, which isn’t all that big on freedom, legalizes online gambling before the United States. If that happens, should we give them the Statue of Liberty back? After all, France isn’t in favor of freedom of speech and has laws about what you can name things. Yet they may allow their people the freedom to spend their money online however they want before America does. It’s a sad, sad day.