EU lawmakers are almost certain to exclude gambling and scrap the country-of-origin principle from the scope of the Services Directive, leaving the regulation of the domestic gambling markets to national governments.
The provision of the country-of-origin principle, which formed the core of the original proposal tabled by the European Commission two years ago, would have allowed service providers to operate across the 25 EU member states according to the rules of their home country.
The country-of-origin principle will be replaced with a clause that ensures the \’freedom to provide services\’, but offers governments wide scope to clamp down on foreign providers for reasons of public security.
Calculators
