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The big regulatory trend in Europe is the Balkanizing of regulatory jurisdictions. The
European one-market dream for online gaming is effectively dead. And nation-by-
nation regulation is taking its place.
France, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Belgium have all adopted country-specific
regulations. The Netherlands says it plans putting forth its own set of online gaming
regulations. And the U.K. is considering changing its regulatory scheme – which
operates under a one-market philosophy – to something more restrictive.
Greece set December 2012 deadlines for unlicensed operators to leave their newly
restricted market – and many operators complied.
The country-by-country regulatory movement had a big impact on operators in two
places – operational costs and player liquidity for poker and bingo.
Italy, France and Spain required that games take place only among players in the same
country. The “ring-fencing” of these countries forced player liquidity on the “main”
poker networks to drop. And players in Italy, France and Spain saw their access to the
global liquidity pool cut off.
Regulators throughout Europe are in discussion to see how they can better share
information. And the talks could eventually result in the pooling of player liquidity.
But those items are still in the discussion stages. The regulatory bodies involved in the
EUROPE
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