Greece and Netherlands receive a final warning about gambling restrictions
29th February, 2008
In hope to boost competition, Brussels issued Greece and Netherlands the last and final warning on Thursday about their restrictions in gambling markets, giving them two months to reply to the warning.
If the countries either fail to reply within the given time frame or their response gets considered as inadequate, then they could be facing the European Court of Justice next, which is the highest court in European Union.
The warning was issued due to concerns about the restrictions to foreign gambling competitors in both countries. Greek gambling and advertising restrictions and Dutch sports betting restrictions are all considered unfair and breaching the fair trade regulations.
McCreevy, the EU internal market commissioner, who is currently looking at 10 EU member states, who could all be facing problems for restricting foreign gambling competitors from entering the market through unfair and unlawful practices.
Here is what the commission said about this: "If member states wish to ban gambling, well, then I won't cry at night about it. But they can't be discriminatory against legally authorized gambling companies from other member states."
