Case Studies

The remote gambling industry in the UK

On 8 September 2009, the European Court of Justice delivered its ruling on a dispute between the Portuguese state betting monopoly, Santa Casa, and online sports betting company Bwin and the Portuguese football league. The ruling appeared to protect the positions of national gambling monopolies at at the expense of competitors on the basis that restrictions on the freedom to provide services may be justified by overriding reasons relating to the public interest, in this case, ‘the objective of combating fraud and crime’ (paragraph 72, C-42/07). ... More.

The British spread betting industry

In 2000, electronic dealing transformed the London Stock Exchange replacing the physical locality of the trading pit for numbers on screens (Zaloom 2006). More quietly, another technological revolution was also changing the face of trading in the UK. Internet and the advent of online platformswere making trading available to all of us. With a connected computer and a bit of money, a click sufficed to deal in the stock market. Ease of access and rapidity of action have particularly benefited one way of trading on the up: spread betting. ... More.

Casinos and border games in Slovenia

The Slovenia case study explores how national, geographical and symbolic borderlines influence the meanings and processes of gambling. Equally, it also looks into how gambling practices and legislations create and/or dissolve these same borders. I will work with people who are affected by n a variety of ways: gamblers themselves and/or their family members, tourist and gambling industry professionals and those who pass and interpret gambling legislation. ... More.

Land-based casinos in Cyprus

Betting, card playing, and other games of chance have long had a significant, if ambiguous, place in Cypriot life; but since the division of the island in 1974, they have developed in different directions in the Turkish Cypriot north and the Greek Cypriot south. Whilst the state lottery, horse-racing and football betting are the only licensed forms of gambling in the south, a small number of casinos, modelled on the private clubs run by Turkish Cypriots in London’s Soho and Mayfair during the 1950s and 60s, was long in operation in the north. ... More.