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.

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.