Monopolies have often been justified under the belief that the state is better placed to protect its gamblers. But that’s why countries should have stringent consumer protection rules: it’s the rules that protect the consumer, not whether there is a monopoly or not....
In the study, the University of Vienna comes to the conclusion that the current advertising activities of the Austrian gambling monopolists create a strong incentive to gamble via various strategies. Furthermore, the experts from the University of Munich concluded that all of the monopolists' advertising strategies examined by the University of Vienna are highly problematic with regard to ECJ requirements and that the "gambling makes you rich" advertising strategy in particular is blatantly contrary to EU law....
