Poker in Europe

[chanchuan]

I know everybody is preoccupied mostly with the US legislation right now, but here's one about Europe: does anyone have the knowledge (or a link maybe?) about the state of legislation in various european countries?

For instance, AFAIK gambling is legal in the UK (and tax free) and there are no problems with it in Germany, too (you don't have to actually pay taxes either, unless I understood sth wrong). How about other countries, Spain, France, Italy?

Do I have to do the research individually for each country or has sb tried it already?

[JavaNut]

This differs highly from country to country and from sportsbetting to poker. In general sportsbetting and poker are not seen as the same in legislation in the EU.

[Blue Lagoon]

I heard a french guy who said you can play online poker and you can bet on everything. One exception: you cannot bet on horses on the Internet, but practically, it's risk free.

All this is from player point of view. I don't think you can create your own online room.

[xerxesthegod]

haha what a joke. The law says that online gambling is illegal in France ( even for the player). But no one has ever been arrested for this so nobody knows how the law is applied if it gets to the tribunal.
BTW right now french banks refuse any transaction with gaming companies. Still no problem witn neteller or ewallets even though I heard some banks credit cards have been refused when trying to deposit to neteller.