EUROPE - Taxation without representation

[cosmicway]

German socialist mep Evelyn Gebphardt wins the day in Brussels, so games of chance are to be excluded from the services directive.
That means crushing taxation and increased chances of getting yourself in trouble with the law.
Betting companies failed lamentably in their bid to change the European law, as they made heavy use of "law breaking" tactics and did not seek the support of the public (i.e. their customers and natural allies).
It leaves everyone with the bitter sensation of going down without firing a bullet.

It is next to impossible to air one's views on the subject, because of the heavy censorship in the media, with the exception of some international forums like this one.

[Santo]

I'd be surprised if England gets affected tbh... bookmaking too ingraned into the culture... Another reason to say "non" to Europe :P

[BrentCrude]

They want to outlaw internet gambling where you actually have a chance to win at places like poker rooms and sportsbooks because they can't get their greedy hands on the rake and juice.They want to sell their ripoff lottery 90 percent taxed and percentage take out tickets to supply the state with $$$$$$$so the useless eater cronie bureaucrats can keep their bloated inflated salary makework jobs.

[cosmicway]

England is basically in favour of liberalisation so it can't be affected. The UK based companies are considered reliable and you won't see them in any black lists.
I 'm not from England and without E.U. we could have someone like Benito Mussolini or Salazar in power, let alone free bets.
But we were let down on this one and the monopolies won the vote.
But the voice of the people was never heard on the issue and the betting companies chose an erroneous line of defense in my opinion.
It's not only monopoly power but the levels of taxation and prices they impose are enormous, so effectively your betting is "killed" from the start.
In addition the monopolies are lying on the issue of problem betting as well as when they talk of so called "money laundering". Those two issues were the spearhead of monopoly propaganda, when a rudimentary study is sufficient to reveal that it is them with the worse problem and not the free enterprise.
I am disappointed because the web does not seem to care much about the issue and therefore we live in a state of censorship.
Sports radio - tv in countries who support betting monopolies
is impossible to even get close, because they are sponsored by the monopolies. You got to be a stooge to let you talk in television - if you somehow adopt a centre line attitude it is not enough and they kick you out.

[cosmicway]

Another reason to say "non" to Europe

Perhaps betting politics move in different direction to mainstream politics.
In this particular issue the "nos" were against the liberalisation of betting outlets.

[cosmicway]

They want to outlaw internet gambling where you actually have a chance to win at places like poker rooms and sportsbooks because they can't get their greedy hands on the rake and juice.They want to sell their ripoff lottery 90 percent taxed and percentage take out tickets to supply the state with $$$$$$$so the useless eater cronie bureaucrats can keep their bloated inflated salary makework jobs.

That can't be true of 90% of the people who work for state industries, but there have been many a notorious case of financial mismanagement and nepotism.

The question is are they prepared to bring taxes to logical level ?
Their answer is emphatically NO (in Portugal - Italy - Greece - Sweden where the monopolies are the strongest) !!!
Why not then support free competition ?

We are not against taxation - the people rightly or wrongly have voted socialist many times (whose politics are always about taxes). But everybody is against crippling taxation - putting you out of the game before you start !