Laws of online gambling are pretty much confusing in most countries around the globe. Effectively legislating how, with whom, and under what circumstances players can gamble over the internet is apparently a difficult thing to do. Governments that have tried at best been moderately successful and at worst have failed miserably.
Even where a clear single policy or objective exists, effectively legislating and empowering this objective is quite difficult due to the ubiquitous nature of the internet combined with limitation lead within national laws. Clear laws in this area are rare, and this is particularly so across Europe.
In Europe the above mentioned difficulties are exacerbated by the added complexity of applying umbrella EU law to a group of EU members pushing different political and cultural agendas and always wishing to take a legal approach of their very own, often found inconsistent wit E law. The approach taken by UK is quite different from the approach of Germany. The UK group sought to regulate and license online gambling operators and open its doors to every operators licensed in accepted jurisdictions, which also include all EU members. The latter has tried to ban all non-German operators from taking bets from German residents, while sanctioning local monopoly operators.
The European commission for gambling is trying to enforce a consistent approach across Europe but it seems to be fighting a losing battle to do so. Their approach has its roots in the European communities treaty.