The European Union has made its stance on online casinos very clear in the past few years pushing their policies for a free trade approach to the industry. Many countries have not been particularly receptive to the idea of opening up the industry to foreign competitors though, especially considering that many made the push for a nationalized system in order to help fund government activities.

The new Internal Markets Commissioner for the EU, Michel Barnier, is now pushing hard to draft a positioning paper on online casino and gambling trade that would highlight the views that many member nations have that are divergent from European Union (EU) regulations and that would define the EU policy making it more difficult for nations not to adhere to the policy.

Countries like France, Germany, Finland, Spain and Greece have refused to conform to the EU regulations. France, Germany and Greece are said to provide local operators or state owned monopolies an advantage over private European providers of online gambling services for reasons that are perfectly obvious. In recent news Finland gave RAY and Veikkaus Oy exclusive permission to offer online gambling to their citizens starting in March of this year under an exclusive licensing regime. As for Spain they caused something of a stir over taxing of winnings. Players are given substantial tax breaks on their winnings if the providers of the gambling services are Spanish and are charged in full for winnings from foreign establishments. 

Michel Barnier is definitely in for something of a challenge if he wants to get every member of the EU to conform to EU policies but many argue that it is a step in the right direction. Unlike the U.S., Europe has always been less strict on gambling regulations and is more open to using it as a means of public fund raising. While the EU works to open up the industry to everyone, things are becoming more and more locked off for those in the “the land of the free” who find it increasingly difficult to make transactions with online providers even in states who approve of the practice.

Barnier hopes to be able to get approval for his new position by the College of Commissioners and get to work on the policies as soon as fall of this year.