The Future Of Online Gambling In The EU

The future of online gambling in the EU is wrapped up in both the technological evolution of

systems and the developments of society within the union

The future of online gambling in the EU is bright. The estimated revenues expected in 2015 are said

to be topping 13 billion Euros which is a healthy 15% share of all gambling across the EU. This is

remarkable growth given revenues in 2009 barely hit 9.3 billion Euros, and marks the online gambling

sector as one of the fastest growing in any industry across the collection of 28 nations. This bodes well

for the short and even medium term, but what of the long term future?

The lackluster efforts by these component countries to harmonize EU gambling laws are unlikely to

suddenly produce fruit, and perhaps long term the future is one of slow negotiation and liberalization,

as each nation in turn faces up to the realities of the modern digital age. The instinctive impulse to

impose regulation and restrictions, to prohibit or prevent, slowly eroded by a technically more savvy

public that can easily circumvent these hurdles. The internet is unstoppable, just ask the Chinese.

Future Bright For Online Gambling In the EU

– Revenues to top 13 billion Euros in 2015

– EU mobile gambling increasing in popularity

– Technology and consumer demand leading the market

That process may take decades as domestic party politics plays its part in delaying the inevitable in the

name of preserving national rights or freedoms, and the moral attitudes of some nationalities is likewise

likely to take time to change before acceptance is wholehearted. Regulation will attract business which

will generate revenue which will attract more nations to adopt a regulate rather than restrict attitude

which will in turn make other nations jump on the bandwagon.

We’ve seen precisely the same happen with casinos in the US northeast with state after state falling

in line to claw back dollars lost across state lines, in the EU they’re just international borders instead,

the principle is the same. Thus the lead shown by the UK, Gibraltar and Malta, amongst others, opens

the gateway for the tide to sweep in and wash away the old stuffy scratch card lotteries and state run

monopolies. The times have changed, and these nations will change with the times like it or not.

Internet Of Things

What makes the future of online gambling so hard to predict beyond that time frame is the integral

technological aspect that has been the vehicle of delivery and facilitator of existence in the first place.

Ask any technical guru you like what the future holds for the internet and they’ll smile enigmatically

and admit they don’t have a clue, they just know it’ll be wonderful, and will then start dribbling on

about “the internet of things” being just the start, the more starry eyed mumbling things about mind

reading computers of the future.

It is, of course, at this point that you wonder why you asked them in the first place. Bill Gates himself

once said that “No one will need more than 637KB of memory for a personal computer. 640KB ought

to be enough for anybody.” Thus proving that even these knowing insiders know absolutely nothing

beyond what’s on the bench in their own research and development lab at the moment. The technology

itself is galloping away with us all strapped aboard, destination? Unknown.

Only limited at present by power consumption mobile devices are much in vogue, the development of

a be anywhere do anything attitude common amongst the young, who now expect their smartphone to

be the lynchpin of their very existence, providing everything from information to communication, from

navigation to instant payment services. mobile casinos in the EU have grown in popularity and will

continue to do so due in part to a generation that is growing into adult consumers used to the phone as a

preferred node of interface.

This then throws up the possibility of wearable casinos as the technology to put a computer in

your glasses or on your wrist grows in confidence and success. Mobile phones have morphed from

unusable bricks you could fight off a zombie invasion with, into slick tablets that can render a zombie

invasion for your entertainment, undoubtedly wearables will follow a similar pattern of development

and evolution until those providing internet betting in the EU now have a special wrist optimized

application.

The Future Is Not Ours To See

Online gambling does not exist in a bubble, of course, so there is perhaps a fair degree of

unpredictability inherent not merely due to the unbelievable speed of technological development, but

also because the societies that comprise the EU have a tendency to be a tad unpredictable themselves.

Politically countries lurch left and then right only to stagger back again, or worse hover in between

with coalitions too unstable to take on complex issues of regulation and common sense.

Perhaps in some utopian future there might be harmony amongst the European Union’s 28 nations. A

future wherein they work together to regulate sensible online gambling operations under common sense

laws and a tax regime that is neither greedy nor punitive. A future where there are secure safeguards

against cyber crime and problem gambling is addressed and dealt with in a humane sensible way. A

future of trouble free online casinos in the EU. I know, I know. But we can dream, can’t we?

At the other end of the scale perhaps stands the horror of a future where either all gambling is

controlled by one vast agency of the central European government who use mind probes to assess your

identity and send robot debt collectors to sever your spinal cord for late payment of incurred losses.

A dystopian nightmare of technological and totalitarian control where gambling is just one of many

distractions from the fact we’ve all become slaves to the new world order. Yes, I know, equally as

unlikely.

The truth is the future of online gambling in the EU will likely as not follow the same pattern of

commercial exploitation as other industries of retail and services have already tracked. The consumers

will demand more services at a higher quality and lower price, they will want convenience and ease of

use regardless of the technology involved and most of all what these players of the future will crave is

the familiarity of what has gone before. The future then will have to carry with it some of the past.