EU countries to go before the ECJ on gambling laws

According to the EU internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy, it is inevitable" that some of the cases currently being worked on concerning EU member states' gambling laws will go to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Europe's highest court. He made this prediction in a recent European Policy Center event in Brussels.

"We have a dialogue going on with some member states... but for those where we cannot reach agreement we will proceed to the European Court of justice," McCreevy said.

"We have a lot of countries where we are at various stages of the legal procedures," he added. "It's inevitable that some cases will before the ECJ," he concluded.

Currently, certain EU member states bar foreign gaming companies from operating. In France last year, criminal sanctions were threatened or imposed on the chief executives of sport betting companies licensed in other EU countries.