European Parliament votes to prohibit online gambling??

Anyone care to expand on this?
I received an email from another poker forum that I've visited in the past and went to a link that was saying something about European Parliament prohibits online gambling. Does anyone have the latest on this? (can't imagine what online pokerzzz would be like without the US & Europe, lol.... sigh).

I haven't been following anything about this & was first time I'd heard anything about it. Hoping some Euros could expand/explain further about this... what's up?

Ive think that they would like to have europe-wide regulations on online gambling. Ive never heard any talk of a ban. The problem in Europe is that online gaming is very hard to police across borders, so I would imagine that any regulation that is brought in would deal with issues such as this. I would be amazed if any Europe-wide ban was brought in, im not even sure if it would even be possible as maybe it would break international trade laws. They could maybe try and persuade individual member states to make their own ban on online gaming, Portugal already has made online gaming in their country illegal and I think Cyprus would like to as well.

Man, I just don't get it. WTF is everyone trying to ban online gambling. I can see trying to regulate/tax it. Thats just greed. That I can understand at least. But all these proposed bans? Total BS. Keep your morals out of my online conduct. As long as its not harming/not a threat to anyone, what I do in the privacy of my house (all of it), should be nobody's business but mine.

Unfortunately these days what the US does one year europe
and speciallt the UK follows. I remember when the US first
banned online gambling I wondered how long it would be
before europe did this

I hope it is wrong but I am not so sure because it is just
another example of governments trying to run our lives, I wish they
would realise they are elected to run the country not the people,
the nanny state is getting more and more a reality

I had a quick search and it didnt turn up anything.

Unless someone can post a link, we will have to assume that no EU vote has taken place.

Does the EU have a parliament? I know individual countries have parliaments, but have not heard of a continent or the EU having one.

Yes the EU has a parliament.

Its been around for about 30 years.

This is the link I got from another forum today!! sigh!!

http://www.internet-cafe.at/axis/arp... 20Opinion.htm

I think its a fake.

It looks very genuine, but the URL isnt a redirect to the Times site.

The date of the story is shown to be today.

If you look through today's stories on the Times Online site; it dosent appear.

I am suspicious about that link. If that is really The Times, why is the article in such poor English ?

Edit - Stu beat me to it.

I don`t think there is any likelihood that Europe would ever adopt such a ban. Some of the minor European countries are anti-gambling, but most of the large and important ones have licensed and taxed online gaming.

Many of the big internet gaming companies are based in the UK or in UK dependent territories, and the industry is considered entirely legitimate here. It is said that, when UIGEA was passed, Tony Blair (who was UK Prime Minister at that time) phoned the White House on the hotline to express surprise and annoyance that America would take unfriendly action against British business interests at a time when the two allies were actively involved together in joint military operations. Allegedly, George Bush told him that it was a surprise to the White House too, and not his administration`s policy.

Didn`t stop him signing the bloody thing, though.

It`s very difficult to imagine that such a law could ever be passed in Europe over British objections.

they won't ban it. this is not usa.

I was wondering about it myself (hence the post here & asking about it). Just doing an internet search today, nothing has come up about it.
Seems kinda odd that a poker forum would send out an email with this link here in the forefront?? (wouldn't they want to get their facts straight before doing this?)

Here in Europe they are trying to restrict players to just play on their country sites...like France and Italy...pokerstars had to create PS.fr/it

I think the specific artlcle that was linked is a hoax. It tried to get me to upgrade to play the video and I got concerned. I couldn't find any similar article in The Times and it used their masthead.

i think we will get a law for the whole EU, so we can all play together and ps.fr or ps.it won't be necessary. it will be ps.eu maybe

Why would we allow the regulation of the online poker world. Just vote them out of office.