I think some casino discrimination rules are unreasonable because they don't seem to be related to fraud. If the problem is fraud, they should be fighting that, rather than blocking whole countries.
Discrimination used to be the norm, and was acceptable only 50 or so years ago, but the groups discriminated against fought back and have won rights to equal treatment. The rules now require a good reason to be made for discrimination, it is not good enough just to discriminate and not say why.
Grand Prive were a case in point. They decided to stop giving bonuses to players who used the British Pound, as it gave such players an unfair advantage. In order to receive their promotions, players had to use the US Dollar. This wasn't discrimatory, as all players had the choice to use the dollar and receive promotions, or use the pound and not receive them.
They then added a rule that UK players had to use the pound, and this became discrimination, as the players could not take part on an equal footing by having the same options as all the rest.
The argument about businesses discriminating on grounds of place of origin is not that clear cut, and here in the UK would be illegal if the discrimination were solely on grounds of things like race, gender, religion etc. Discrimination would be allowed on the basis of an individuals circumstances, and if an individual repeatedly commits fraud they can be banned from the places they have targeted, or may target in the future.
Discrimination on the internet is hard to police, as the question of juristiction arises, and it would be up to the person discriminated against to make a complaint. Where the country is outside the EU, and the complainant is not on EU soil at the time of discrimination, the business will most likely not be challenged.
My suspicion with casinos is that they are NOT discriminating due to fraud in many cases, as they would have us believe that US players are above such things, but the Fins are all thieves, along with the Danes. It seems the discrimination is against small countries, but with the US they will swallow the cost of the fraud (naturally, UIGEA has changed everything since).
It would really take a test case in the courts to see if certain types of discrimination are allowable or not, and it would depend on the reasons given.
Current arguments exist about discrimination against MEN with car insurance. The insurers are currently allowed to do this, because the discrimination is based on risk assessment, and not purely gender. This, however, may change, as the EU want to outlaw this kind of risk profiling, and require insurers to asess drivers as individuals.
Casinos can get away with such discrimination because it would be the law in their licencing juristiction that counts, so those moving to Malta had better realise that some of their terms might be subject to challenge, and they may be required to make changes. Because all EU countries are considered equal, it will not be allowable simply to day that one EU country is a hotbed of fraud and another is fine. The EU courts will take the view that if they met the criteria for admittance in the first place, they are no less "safe" than any other for business.
If anything, the EU rules against discrimination are so extreme that it is the business to prove their innocence, not the complainant to prove guilt, which is the opposite of most other court matters. This is because those that seek to discriminate because of personal prejudice have found ways to frustrate the law, and use "indirect" methods to get rid of those they don't like.
In the case of the African countries, it would be down to the business to PROVE that the rate of fraud is so high they had no other choice (should the courts decide to accept the matter, that is). There are one or two countries that are deemed so "evil" they sit on official blacklists, and in these cases it IS legal to discriminate against it's citizens, and in some cases it is compulsory.
What particuarly raises my blood pressure are those casinos that call ME a "fraud" or "fraud risk" just because I live here in England
