THE FUTURE OF ONLINE GAMBLING
Seeing a lot of changes in many countries regarding the regulations for the online gambling market has definitely brought many questions. Here are some thoughts about the future of online gambling and the restrictions that can be imposed to the online betting sites.
Nowadays, most countries don't have clear regulations for the online gambling market, so basically anyone can access and play on any gambling website, regardless of the place where a website is hosted or licensed. Some countries, including Germany or Italy managed to regulate or re-regulate their online gambling industries and there are many other countries which are currently trying to regulate their markets. Therefore, many bettors are now asking: what will happen to us, what changes will we see?
First of all, online gambling or betting can't be banned - at least not in a member state of the European Union. Countries can regulate and supervise their online gambling activity, but they can't ban it or impose huge restrictions which are not compatible with the EU law.
So, what does this mean? Well, if you live in a country without a regulated online gambling market, it means that you can play on any website you want. This can be a good thing, but if the market is not regulated then a gambling website doesn't need to have a license, doesn't need to pay taxes to the country from which you're playing and doesn't need to respect the rules/law of your country. Basically, your country is losing huge amounts of money (because those website/gambling companies don't pay taxes) and you, as an online bettor, are very vulnerable to the abuses that a betting website/gambling company can make.
Imagine a simple scenario: you win a big amount of money from a betting website that closes your account for no reason and decides not to pay you. If that website is not licensed in your country and it doesn't have headquarters/offices in your country, then it's almost impossible for you to sue them and win back your money - especially if the website is licensed in tax havens countries (e.g. Gibraltar). On the other hand, if the online gambling market from your country is regulated and you play on a betting website which is licensed and obeys the laws of your country, then you definitely have bigger chances to win. Overall, from this point of view - a regulated online gambling market seems to be safer when it comes to using betting websites which are not that popular.
Of course, a regulated online gambling market can also have several disadvantages that many people have noticed in countries like France, Italy and others. Probably the biggest disadvantage is that some countries impose huge taxes for a gambling operator to get licensed, therefore many operators give up the license and leave the country - so in the end bettors don't have many websites where they can bet.
One of the good things is that The Court of Justice of The European Union is there to prevent and act when an European Union Member State tries to apply rules contrary to the EU law (such as banning certain services - sports betting, poker or restricting operators licensed in other member states). In the end, online betting will always be available - in one way or another, so we shouldn't be worried about this.
You may also want to read the following:
Online betting
Offline vs online betting
Future sports available for betting
