There is little chance of the European Community successfully harmonising gaming legislation, despite a general desire to do so, says one of the principal Euromat delegates.

Uwe Christiansen, co-chairman of the German VDAI trade association, who sits on the Euromat board, said that the organisation was constantly reviewing pending EC legislation. "More than 60 per cent of German legislation is influenced by EC politicians. And many of the issues affect our gaming industry. If you take the Services Directive alone it could have had far-reaching effects on the industry and Euromat had to work hard to get our industry out of this piece of legislation."

Christiansen said that Euromat, the federation of European coin machine associations, had done much to head off potentially damaging legislation for the industry.

"Harmonising gambling legislation is a permanent issue with the EC and Euromat has had discussions with members of the European Parliament on many occasions. It is difficult to explain the differences between gaming and gambling to them. We also have the ongoing problem of internet gambling. We have to find a way to develop rules for that sector and for global betting.

"The EC puts everything together under the label of ‘gambling’ and there is a great vagueness about what constitutes gambling. In Ireland the Church makes money with bingo after services; in Norway the main beneficiary from gambling is the Red Cross; in Germany the state takes €1bn a year from the gambling industry. There are different rules and a great many vested interests everywhere. Harmonise it? Forget it - it won’t happen.

"Each government recognises that it makes more sense to run it under some kind of rules so that it is legal but the government gets its share."