McCreevey rules out European regulation of Internet gaming

The Financial Times reports that Europe is watching closely as Italy prepares to release new licenses that will govern online gaming, kiosks and betting shops. The continent appears to have divided into three camps, the paper writes: The French group, which wants to restrict access to national markets, the British group, which is in favor of liberalisation, and a non-aligned group which is caught between the other two groups and weighing the pros and cons of the two approaches. The odds of European Union-wide regulation of Internet gambling? "Not a chance," internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevey told the European Parliament last month.