Wednesday 19 May 2010

The growing black market

I've just seen a report of the presentation in late April by the EU Commissioner Michel Barnier on his work programme for the immediate future of the European Parliament's Internal Markets Committee.

Aside from the fact that he praised the Schadelmose report, my response to which was pre-blog and was therefore published in Parliament Magazine and can be seen here, it is notable to me that the new Commissioner warned against the existence of 15,000 illegal gambling sites.

When the French did their lengthy report into online gambling, the Durieux report, they talked about there being 5,000 illegal sites.

Many times since, I have commented, on this blog and publicly, that 5,000 is an awfully large number of operators, when you consider that after 10 years in the industry, I could probably name you 30 at a push. Now, it seems we have 15,000 operators - three times as many!

To me, it suggests one of two things: either politicians are pulling numbers out of the air for effect; or the failure of politicians to regulate in a way which allows competitive product to be offered to people has resulted (and will continue to result) in the massive growth of the black market.

Which is it?


2 comments:

  1. More likely he's commenting from a postion of not knowing any facts - would be interested to see if he could name 50.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you had financial problems, then it is time for you to smile. You only need to contact Mr. Benjamin  with the amount you wish to borrow and the payment period that suits you and you will have your loan in less than 48 hours. I just benefited for the sixth time a loan of 700 thousand dollars for a period of 180 months with the possibility of paying before the expiration date. Make contact with him and you will see that he is a very honest man with a good heart.His email is lfdsloans@lemeridianfds.com and his WhatApp phone number is + 1-989-394-3740 

    ReplyDelete