According to Ladbrokes, gambling monopolies should be broken apart and opened up to free competition. Part of the background to the current stand-off involves a complaint filed with the EU by Ladbrokes, the world's largest betting organisation. For the moment, Finland is the only country that has asked for extra time to prepare a brief on the matter. Th EU Commission is demanding similar explanations from six other EU countries. The view of the Finnish Interior Ministry is that there is no conflict between the Finnish model and EU market principles. At the heart of the matter is the perception by the EU that Finland's state monopoly on gambling is at odds with EU policies on free market operations.
