ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to analyse the principal objectives and systems constituting regimes intended to regulate commercial gambling in any of its five principal forms: casino gaming, gaming by machine, betting (both pool or pari-mutuel and fixed odds), lotteries and bingo. The analysis that is presented here was prompted by the decision taken in early 1990 by Directorate 12 of the European Commission to contract research into the national regulation of betting, gaming and lotteries in the member states of the European Community in view of the completion of the internal market in 1992. The object of the research was to identify areas of common control, potential conflict and transferable regulatory mechanisms. The scope of the study included all commercial gambling and similar transactions-in particular, those that could be, or were already, operated across national frontiers.1 The research findings were published in 1991 (European Commission 1991).
