It appears it’s not only the Americans who have developed a taste for arresting anyone they can for being involved in online gaming and gambling. News from Greece suggests there is now a concerted attempt by authorities there to crack down on anyone circumventing the strict monopoly the state has on online betting.

The arrest of a Greek man for running an ‘affiliated’ website linked to some British-based online gaming companies is a disturbing development indeed, especially since being part of the European Union supposedly means Greece subscribes to the principle of open trade between member states.

Unfortunately, if a report by Greek e-paper eKathimerni is true, Greek authorities are hiding their actions behind a façade of concern for curbing so-called criminal activity by cracking down on non-state sanctioned betting sites. Taking a jab at the UK’s more progressive approach to this issue, a Greek authority has claimed that England is the only exception in a European-wide desire to keep online gambling within the bounds of state-run monopolies.

This is a patent pretense at making sure the bucks go to the government. It has nothing to do with cracking down on criminal activity and more on maintaining a cushy cash cow for the powers that be. In fact, non other than the European Commission has signaled its opposition to the maintaining of state monopolies in the online gambling sector.
Free online bingo gaming is one of the fastest growing sectors in the online gaming industry and it is a shame that this job-creating, high-demand pastime has been tarred by greedy politicians with the crime brush. One only has to see the success of a properly regulated online bingo industry in the UK to realize that protestations to the contrary are simply bleating excuses by a very unimaginative European cabal of autocrats.

Written by John Witherspoon - Need more tips for playing bingo online?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 2:46 am and is filed under Online Bingo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.