Last week came speculation that the Netherlands may be joining the regulated market frenzy in Europe. According to EGR, the report, which originally came from Dutch newspaper De Telegraa, suggested that "the Dutch government has now decided to tax and regulate....based on the Italian and French licensing model" of allowing many existing online gambling operators into the country.

The Status Quo

For many years, virtually all poker sites could be accessed worldwide. If you were playing online poker, you could easily be playing against players from many other countries. Of course, this market still exists but it is increasingly being rivaled by the "ring-fenced" markets that are popping up all over Europe (my quick math from rooms tracked by PokerScout indicates around 30% of real money players play at a country-specific regulated poker site). Most people seem to agree that the status quo since the late 90s/early 00s can not be sustained indefinitely and that regulation worldwide is inevitable and is the best alternative versus other possible scenarios (i.e. outright bans). One can assume that this is where US regulation may finally end up -- this will certainly be the case for additional European countries.

As someone who has reaped the benefits of the status quo -- both as a player and as an employee of various affiliates -- it is admittedly a bit worrisome to think about what the future holds. Sure, it's nice to have more security, legitimacy and better games, but with all that also could come higher taxes (which could lead to higher rake or less lucrative promotions), less openness with ring-fenced markets (players being shut out, especially from smaller markets), and even a fear that affiliates may have a diminished role in regulated markets (we will cover this in a future post).

Regulation Thus Far

The Netherlands are just the latest country to join the regulation train. Sweden first got the ball rolling in early 2006 with their online monopoly, Svenska Spel. Soon after, Italy and Austria followed suit, with others such as France regulating online poker this year. Poland, Denmark and Romania also have potential plans in the works. The theme of these new markets seem to be the same: players are only allowed to participate in the games if they reside or are located in the country the site is licensed in and/or have a bank account in the country.

Below is a list of countries that I have attempted to compile that have regulated online poker in some fashion -- with notable traffic -- that are beyond the status-quo brand of international poker that most of us know. I found that specifics can be difficult to gather; please let me know if any additional details need to be mentioned for a country that you may be more familiar with.

Sweden: Launched Svenska Spel in early 2006. Svenska Spel is a state owned monopoly. They are the 16th most popular online room according to Poker Scout with around 2500 real money players during peak times.

Austria: Runs Win2day using the Boss software. Launched in late 2007/early 2008, they are also a state-owned monopoly. They are the 30th most popular room averaging around 800 real money players per peak times.

Italy: Shortly after the United States passed UIGEA, Italy regulated online poker. Although not offering games to players from other countries, they are more open than Austria and Sweden. Top poker rooms in Italy include the People's Network, PokerStars, International (Boss), iPoker, Party and Ongame. According to PokerScout, they represent about 15% of the total real money traffic,.

France: One of the most recent regulated markets, France opened their market in 2010. More like Italy than Austria or Sweden, they have given licenses to many traditional online gambling sites, many of which are names we all know such as Full Tilt, Party and Poker Stars. Like the Italian model, sites such as PokerStars.fr offer similar services to their traditional .com site, such as games, software and promotions but only players from France are allowed to play each other. Players paying on French sites represent about 10% of the total worldwide traffic at real money games.

Estonia, Belgium: Estonia is one of the newest regulated markets launching recently. PokerStars.ee is currently the sole operator in Estonia. In a bit of a twist, players actually get to play against ".com" players at this site. Poker Stars has also inked an agreement to offer games to Belgium players. It is unknown at this time if players will be playing against "Belgium-only" players.

In our next post on this topic, we will be discussing what the regulated markets mean for affiliates. Check here for Part II.