Alan Littler – författare

In November 2005 Tilburg University hosted for the first time an international Colloquium on the European and National Perspectives of the Regulation of Gambling. The results of this exciting day are reflected in this book which brings together a wide range of perspectives from the contemporary debate surrounding the regulation of gambling markets within the context of the European Union. Not only does the book encompass both ends of the spectrum of the current discussion; it also brings together the perspectives of academics, lawyers and operators. The debate on the regulation of gambling has been gathering pace following a series of judgments of the ECJ. In 2006 gambling was excluded from the proposed Services Directive, and the European Commission commenced infringement proceedings against a handful of Member States regarding restrictions on the supply of sports betting services. Given these developments and being one of the very few publications concerned with this topic, this book will serve as a timely and valuable contribution for all those interested in this emerging and at times decisive debate.

The dynamic discussions which took place at the Colloquium on the Economic Aspects of Gambling Regulation: EU and US Perspectives, hosted by Tilburg University, are reflected in this book. It brings together a wide range of perspectives from the contemporary debate surrounding the regulation of gambling from within the context both of the EU and the USA. Not only does the book encompass both ends of the spectrum of the current discussion; it also brings together the perspectives of academics, lawyers and operators. Debates surrounding the regulation of gambling have been increasing in terms of frequency and ferocity, at the national, European and international levels. Within the Member States of the European Union there has been considerable debate as to the appropriate method of regulating gambling, in particular with a view to securing revenue streams for good causes. Concurrently, infringement proceedings of the European Commission and the case-law of the European Court of Justice have the potential to disrupt chosen regulatory approaches and thus long established revenue flows. This is but one of the economic aspects to the regulation of gambling which to date has not been explored within Europe to the extent seen in the United States. Lessons which European jurisdictions can learn from American experiences in this field, and discussions on the state-of-the-art of gambling economics in Europe today, form the basis of this dynamic book.

Since the 1990s the European Court of Justice has provided an institutional backdrop from which the requirements of EU law regarding gambling regulation are evolving. Given the total absence of harmonisation, Member States are competent to regulate gambling conditional upon such regulation being compatible with EU law. This book analyses the regulatory approaches undertaken in France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom regarding a variety of forms of online and offline gambling with a view to assessing the compatibility of these approaches. Furthermore it illustrates prevailing commonalities between the regimes and injects a degree of realism into the debate, softening the hard stance taken by stakeholders at opposite ends of the policy spectrum.