How About Serving , Not Protecting Us

Germany has recently banned online gambling in all 16 states. The law came into effect on January 1, and excepted only horseracing and state-run operations. You can guess already that this has raised quite an opposition.

The Austrian online gambling provider Bwin, for one, has been outraged. It and other companies too, are determined to take legal action against the decision. In the latest news, a spokesman for the European Commission said Brussels will decide soon within weeks whether to join the legal fight on behalf of its members.

The world divides to two when it comes to online gambling law. While Germany takes the American example of banning the industry, other European Union countries open up the competition.

The official German claim is consumer protection. The Commission's Secretary General Sigrid Ligne said this week, when addressing the issue on BBC, that "we feel that claim is unjustified."

All governments wish to protect their people. That is what governments are for. But there is quite a line that crosses between protecting them, and preventing service altogether!

The process will take a few months until it reaches the European Court of Justice. But it is prime time for the people to voice their opinion, or shall we say decision.

It may seem to you that the case in hand is more protecting state-run monopolies than protecting gamblers, banning competition more than simply banning gambling sites.

Maybe the German government and others too, should view their task as serving their electorate. Instead, they seem to be hurting them as they hide behind the excuse of protecting them.

Maybe they need reminding the prohibition has never worked and was always revealed as less transparent and more poorly regulated option.