International

The debate around gambling is flaring up once again: should gambling not be considered a normal sector of the internal market and thus liberalised? In fact, most European governments, and to date a majority of MEPs, share the SP’s view that gambling is no ordinary economic activity. The lobby in favour of liberalising gambling and its on-line variant is, however, extremely active. No wonder, when you consider that what we have here is a multi-billion euro industry. Of course, I am personally completely opposed to liberalisation: lack of enforcement of the law means that the gambling industry is already out of control. But that doesn’t mean that the government should withdraw completely from the fray, creating even more victims of gambling addiction than already exist.

Turnover of the official, state-controlled lotteries in Europe amounts to €76 billion. It is therefore no surprise that every method has been explored by the pro-liberalisation lobbyists: there’s big money to be gained, at least for the gambling corporations; as a gambler, you know well enough that overall you always lose. In any case my telephone is red-hot with lobbyists who want to change my mind. Because I’m responsible for this dossier for our political group, they know it’s me they have to get hold of.

Prospects as things stand are that the majority in the European Parliament against liberalisation of gambling will hold. Even the European Court of Justice has issued a series of rulings in which it is made clear that this is no ordinary economic activity, and that the risks of treating it as such would be much too great. There is a danger that organised crime will spread its tentacles via liberalised gambling, as it provides the ideal vehicle for money-laundering. And what of the fraud in football, such as occurred recently in Italy, where it turned out that the results of a number of games had been fixed, and that this was of course directly connected to crooked gambling syndicates? Not only to prevent and combat gambling addiction, but also to keep out organised crime, it’s absolutely essential that the authorities keep tight hold of the reins. Unfortunately for the lobbyists, this will remain our viewpoint.