Online Gambling under EU Law: Strolling Between Controlled Expansion and Genuine Diminution of Gambling Opportunities

This article outlines some of the ambiguities arising from the endeavours of the EU Court to offer the national courts sufficiently clear interpretation of EU rules on free movement of services in respect of various national restrictions of online gambling that would enable them to make rulings in increasingly high numbers of cases in which foreign providers are restricted from accessing markets of EU Member States. It is submitted that this casuistic approach by the Court should not be considered as satisfying and that harmonising instruments should be adopted by the EU legislators, instead. Yet however, this is less realistic than ever before, as the Commission in situation of a total lack of the Member States« consensus stepped away from its efforts to pave the way to at least minimum standards of gambling offerings and provision of customers« protection, leaving it further to the EU and national courts to balance between controlled expansion and genuine diminution of gambling opportunities so as to weigh between free movement of services and opposing legitimate aims of the Member States. Spletne igre na sreco po pravu EU: vijuganje med nadzorovanim sirjenjem in pristnim omejevanjem priložnosti za igranje na sreco Clanek izpostavlja nekatere nejasnosti, ki izhajajo iz prizadevanj Sodisca EU, da nacionalnim sodiscem ponudi dovolj jasno razlago pravil EU o prostem pretoku storitev v povezavi z razlicnimi nacionalnimi omejitvami spletnega igranja na sreco, kar naj jim omogoci odlocanje v vse vecjem stevilu zadev, v katerih so tuji prireditelji iger na sreco omejevani pri dostopanju na trg držav clanic EU. Avtorica izpostavlja, da kazuisticni pristop Sodisca ne bi smel veljati kot zadovoljujoc in da bi bilo namesto tega potrebno sprejeti harmonizacijski akt na ravni EU. Vendar pa je to danes manj verjetno kot kadarkoli prej, saj je Komisija v razmerah zelo raznolikih interesov držav clanic odstopila od pobud za postavitev tudi minimalnih standardov prirejanja iger na sreco v EU ter varovanja potrosnikov, ki igrajo na sreco, s cimer se naprej prepusca Sodiscu EU in nacionalnim sodiscem nalogo, da postavljajo ravnotežje med nadzorovanim sirjenjem in pristnim omejevanjem iger na sreco, s cimer bodo tudi vzpostavljala ravnotežje med prostim pretokom storitev in nasprotujocim zakonitim ciljem držav clanic.