The gambling monopolies and their rivals on the Internet

In the private gambling industry some battle lines are drawn at European and international level between private online gambling companies and the national gambling monopolies.

The problem shows very sharp differences of opinion when it comes to deciding on what conditions the gambling market can be liberalized if at all. In particular, the detention of the heads of an Austrian online gambling company by French authorities and the recent arrests of two British online gambling executives in the United States has raised the stakes in Europe between lucrative state-sponsored betting monopolies fields and their rivals on the Internet, who have relied on a patchy legal and regulatory framework to expand their activities.

The European commission began violation proceedings against seven EU countries (Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden) that had unfair restrictions on private-sector online gambling operators.