Regulation and Reputation

The rise of Internet gambling transformed not only the traditional ways of providing gambling, but also the established approaches to gambling regulation. With the prohibition of Internet gambling in the USA in 2006, the major Internet gambling operators concentrated their businesses on europe. However, the competition from private Internet operators was being resisted by the majority of european Union (eU) member states. Despite numerous decisions by the european Court of Justice (eCJ), which appeared to support Treaty provisions for the free movement of services, the 2004 proposal of the Commission to include gambling into the Services Directive ¹ and a number of the infringement procedures, ² the national monopolies and protected markets continued to maintain and defend their position.