In a reversal, the EU Court has said that individual countries can ban online gambling companies from outside their boarders.
The Eu court uses the argument that each country can ban online betting from companies outside their country, to stop fraud, while leaving their existing home based ground and online gambling legal.
IMO, This EU court ruling is an open invitation to all EU Countries to move to "Protect" their gambling operations while excluding competition from outside their boarders.
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If so, all the operators have to show is that prevention of fraud is as robust, or more so, than in the target market.
The problem has been compounded by the disappointing performance of licencing bodies, which would have made it easier for states to argue that only internal operators can be policed effectively enough to protect the player, and prevent fraud.
Whether it works is another matter. It took the US YEARS to find a way to suppress online gambling in a way that operators were driven out, yet there are STILL many that take wagers from the US, and new methods of deposit and withdrawal are popping up all the time.
Blocking transactions only works with the cooperation of the banks, so all that is needed is an account "offshore", that does not consider it illegal to process gambling transactions, AND will accept customers from ANY country.
Only those EU countries with state monopolies are likely to try a ban, other countries who want access to markets are going to ensure openness themselves. What MIGHT be considered though, is a ban on operators NOT within the EU, making for an EU wide internal protectionist policy. This might also exclude the big US names from operating within the EU on a US license if the US decides to regulate. This would be on a "tit for tat" basis, as has happened in the past as "revenge" for a trade dispute.
I don't see a problem with operators based in Costa Rica suddenly finding it illegal for them to offer services to EU players, serves most of them right, and the rest are honest enough to be able to move to a location within the EU.
