The EU Parliament just issued a draft report on ‘the integrity of online gambling’ which will be used to shape future policy decisions on the issue of online gambling and free trade. Things do not look good for the freedom of EU citizens to wager online. The report basically rehashes a bunch of tired old arguments that could be used against any number of online activities and comes to the conclusion that it likely would not be against the EU’s free trade agreements for a member country to prevent it’s citizens from being allowed to gamble online.

They begin by pointing out what a legal mess the issue of online gambling has become:

The issue of regulating EU gambling markets, whether conventional or online, is very sensitive. But there is a clear need for clarification about the regulatory environment concerning online gambling. At present, almost 50 % of the cases pending at the European Court of Justice right now are related to gambling.

They then go on to make the genius argument that online gambling is fundamentally different than casino gambling because in a casino, someone can make the determination that you are too drunk to gamble:

It is difficult for online gambling operators to supervise their customers as opposed to conventional gambling where it is possible to see whether the customer is under age, is drunk or in other ways intoxicated or behaving suspiciously. Also since access to online gambling services is easy and can be done in isolation, social checks and constraints that can be exercised by the presence of others are lacking.

Obviously these guys have never been to Vegas. If this statement doesn’t epitomize the “nanny state” mentality that has been leading to the rapid erosion of our precious freedoms, I don’t know what does. Meanwhile in Australia, the politicians are trying to filter the internet for the entire country to block citizens from accessing online gambling sites. Let’s hope that they are not successful.

Download the full EU report here.

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