On Friday, the European Competitiveness Council is scheduled (once again) to try to arrive at some consensus on the role of regulatory agencies overseeing gambling within each EU member state. For those of you who can’t make it to Brussels to see the show live, allow us to summarize in advance.
Respective ministers will deliver high-minded speeches about protectionism, er, protecting consumers from disreputable (i.e. non-governmental monopoly) operators. Everyone except England and Malta will then applaud. After lunch, the members will promise to take some vaguely defined action at some yet to be determined date. They might have had more to do, but the Green Paper that had been promised to arrive in November failed to materialize. Never fear, it has been rescheduled for release sometime next year. Seriously, who does one have to blow to get one of these jobs?
