A number of MEPs urged Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier to come up with common rules to regulate cross border online gambling in Europe. In a debate on 11 February many MEPs were concerned about the effects of gambling on minors, addiction and money laundering.

With gambling being a €70 billion industry in Europe online firms are hoping to break into this national market. This has brought tension and the European Court of Justice has upheld the right of nations to regulate online gambling. This is not the first time that the Parliament addresses this issue: in 2008, it published a complete study of the situation of gambling in and around the European Union.

The tension between the EU's internal market and the right of national regulators to monitor the trade lies at the heart of the legal confusion over online gambling. At present no rules on online gambling exist. Several countries have tried to ban cross-border online betting and the European Commission launched proceedings against them for flouting internal market rules.

Citizens can express their opinion on the issue bu joining the debate in European Parliament page in Facebook.