Estonia going against EU legislation for online casinos

It will not affect many of us in Ireland but if you want to play in an online casino in Estonia you may shortly have not much choice. Estonia’s government has recently introduced new legislation that states that to operate an online casino in the country a company must have a license issued in the country and just one company, Olympic Casino has so far registered. There are thought to be however around 200 operators who make their services available in Estonia including some pretty big names like Party Poker, Poker Stars and Bwin. The Tax and Customs Board has therefore given ISPs instructions to block the sites or face severe fines. Unfortunately this brings us back to the old issue of breaking EU legislation and the single market in which certification in one state should be sufficient to operate in all states but the “cop out” is to make online casinos of national concern quoting safety and welfare of it’s citizens. The ECJ (European Courts of Justice) is however not very active on the issue and as reported here previously warnings have been given but no action has been taken even against the likes of France or Germany so it is unlikely to take any action against Estonia. It seems that online casinos in the country will be restricted to one for the time being.