Risk, Charity, and Boundary Disputes: The Liberalisation and Commercialisation of Online Bingo in the European Union

Abstract

Land-based bingo has traditionally been perceived as a low-risk social form of gambling. The game is often run for purposes of charitable fundraising, and in many countries bingo is associated in good causes and community rather than risk or profit. These distinguishing characteristics have shaped bingo’s regulation in many jurisdictions. However, technological advances have changed the nature of the game as it moved online and challenged traditional approaches to regulation. In this paper, I document the evolution of online bingo regulation in order to explore what we can learn about the changing ways in which states govern speculative play through frameworks of risk. In so doing, I offer a new reading of the growing propensity of EU Member States to govern gambling through risk. I argue that the legalisation and liberalisation of online bingo is a form of enterprising governance, driven by liberalised markets and the erosion of national borders by technology.