Gambling Throughout Europe

Legal gambling is pervasive throughout Europe.

There are some differences between western and eastern Europe, however.

With regard to lotteries, a note of clarification is needed. The category 'Lotteries' refer to general lotteries, that is, regularly scheduled drawings of numbers for large prizes.

Many of the countries that have general lotteries also have instant (scratch or pull tab) games and betting on soccer pools managed by the lottery.

Some of the European countries may operate instant games and soccer pools even though they do not have a general lottery.

While the total state lotteries in the United States are the highest of any country in the world, ($42.9 billion in 1996), European countries also rank high in total lottery sales.

Six of the ten largest lotteries (based on total sales in 1995) are in Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, France, and Italy.

Great Britain and Spain offer the greatest variety of gambling opportunities--- all of the major types of gambling (casino, lottery, dog and horse racing, OTB, and bingo) are available.

The Netherlands, Finland (everything but dog racing), Denmark, and Belgium (everything but bingo) rank next.

Of the thirty-eight European countries, only five do not have legal casinos--- two of these are Scandinavian countries--- Norway and Sweden. Clearly, casino gambling is pervasive in European countries.

Every European country except Monaco and Slovenia has lotteries.

In the case of Monaco, this probably reflects the fact that casinos are a major industry and a lottery would simply compete with what is one of the country's major industries.

Dog racing is not common in western Europe is particularly noticeable--- only Yugoslavia has dog racing.

Bingo is available in northern, central, and southern Europe, but in eastern Europe only Yugoslavia has legalized this form of gambling.

A final generalization is that the majority of countries that have legalized dog and/or horse racing also have legalized off-track betting.

The only exceptions to this are Cyprus, Malta, Yugoslavia, and Slovakia, which have some fom of racing, but do not have off-track betting.

Even when casinos are privately owned, the government may own the building housing the casino and play a larger role in casino operations than is the case in the United States.

In some cases, taxation rates on privately owned and operated casinos are so high that government is the primary beneficiary if not the 'de facto' owner.

For example, gross revenue taxation rates are 93 percent in Germany, 80 percent in France, 60 percent in Austria, and 54 percent in Spain.

European casinos serve a local client�le and are not licensed and developed with the idea of attracting travelers and tourists as is the case in the United States.

The hours of operation of European casinos are more limited than in the United States; typically, they are open only in the evening. They usually cannot advertise, and the sale of alcohol is severely restricted.

The non-gambling forms of entertainment associated with casinos in the United States are virtually non-existent. Overall, they are a different phenomenon than one finds in the United States.