European Commission Scolds Nation, Which Is Apparently Working to Make Amends

From the CAP News page:

July 28, 2009 (CAP Newswire) -- The European Union’s regulatory body, the European Commission, has reportedly reprimanded Spain for its online gambling laws, a number of news sources have reported in recent days.

Like the U.S. and France, Spain exerts a strict control over online gambling activities within its borders. However, as with those other nations, this strict control often transcends borders and affects other nations. Such is the nature of Internet business.

Over the past few weeks, the nation has held a number of government-level meetings to resolve these issues and create a new set of nationally applicable gambling regulations, reports GamblingCompliance.com. The result is the agreement to establish two new “working groups” within the nation to draw up new rules on online gambling. This decision to create two new groups very pointedly leaves out Spain’s national lottery operator Loterias y Apuestas de España (LAE).

With the upcoming iGaming conference iGB España scheduled for October, it will be interesting to see how these issues play out and what effect the controversy has on the industry in Spain and the rest of Europe. To read more about the situation, click here. For more info on the iGB España, please click here.