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Gambling in Estonia is relatively young. While Estonia was a part of the USSR, all types of gambling activities were banned. Despite the prohibition, illegal casinos still functioned, but the real history of gambling started in 1994-1995 when the first Lottery Act of 1994 and the first Gambling Act of 1995 came into power. As the capitol, Tallinn has more casinos than any other Estonian town. As of September 2010, there were 33 casinos in Tallinn. That's 3 times less than in 2008, when 91 gambling venues operated in this city. According to experts, the main reasons for such decrease were the consequences of the crisis and the adoption of the new gambling law in 2008.〔(LETA/Postimees: The number of casinos in Estonia’s capital Tallinn has fallen by three times in two years )〕 The legal age for playing at casinos is 21.〔(Estonia Casinos )〕 ==Gaming law== The latest Gambling Act was adopted in 2008 and came into power at the beginning of 2009. The main advantage of this piece of legislation was that it provided legal basis for the regulation of the rapidly developing online gambling industry. The Act regulates the gambling industry in today's Estonia. Before this act came into power, two main pieces of legislation had been used – the Gambling Act of 1995 and the Lotteries Act of 1994. These two acts very soon proved to be insufficient due to the rapid development of technology in the field of gambling industry. In particular, online gambling services remained unregulated. The Gambling Act 1995 introduced 4 types of gambling, namely games of chance, games of skill, totalisators, and betting. According to this Act, to be able to offer gambling services, all operators should have obtained an activity license and an operation permit. Individual activity licenses should have been obtained for all types of gambling and were issued for 10 years. Operation permit was provided for a term of 5 years and was meant to indicate the location of the gambling place. Those applicants whose license applications were rejected, could turn to the administrative court to resolve the issue.〔(Estonian Gambling Regulations )〕 The new Gambling Act annulled the 2 previous acts, yet most of the main postulates remained unchanged. In particular, the 4 types of gambling named in the Gambling Act 1995 are also described as the main categories of gambling in the new Act. The requirement to obtain an activity license and an operation permit to legally offer gambling services have also remained unchanged.〔(Estonia: Regulation of sports betting under the new Gambling Act )〕 Today, the issue of activity licences and operating permits for gambling and lotteries is the responsibility of the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.〔(Estonian Tax and Customs Board )〕 Since Estonia is a member of the European Union, the gambling law of the country should conform to the laws of the Community. Yet, even those operators licensed in other countries members of the EU should fulfil the same requirements as the unlicensed ones, i.e. apply for the activity and operation licenses and provide the evidence to the Estonian Tax and Customs Board that they are capable of sustaining legal and strong business. These stringent rules are contrary to the principles of free competition that are promoted by the European Commission, but Estonian authorities say that this is just a part of their step-by-step approach to ensuring that gambling industry is properly regulated and causes no harm to the society.〔(Online Gambling License in Estonia )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gambling in Estonia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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