The European Lotteries organization (EL) has for a long time, operated according to the European Union's policies.  Having reached a peak membership of seventy-four different organizations in Europe - all with deep interests in the gambling and lottery industry - the EL has become a very influential group with a strong lobbying presence.  Now, it appears this growth has gone without the checks and balances that it should have been receiving all along.

There is a growing concern by many outside and inside the EL that this group has grown too powerful for their own good, and that many of their members are being protected in a monopolistic fashion.  For instance, many lottery groups have openly violated restrictions governing operations in foreign jurisdictions, marketing and advertising restraints, as well as in becoming profitable entities.  The fact that the EL has even gone so far as to take down the Code of Conduct from their website, suggests that something has gone awry in how the EL conducts their business, lobby's - and even their  influences on the actions of the European Union.

So, when two of the EL's major high-profile members recently announced their resignation, many in the lottery and casino gambling industry were embracing the news with the air of, "it's about time". Although the two Italian groups, Lottomatica and Sisal, resigned not because of pressure to do so, the fact that the resignations even took place sheds some needed light on how the EL has taken a course of operation in which the most powerful groups can do as they please.

The resignations came at the closing of the most recent EL executive meeting held in Rome, during which Lottomatica and Sisal proposed a new candidate to sit on the executive committee.  There was likely some self-serving intentions behind this appointment recommendation - or at least a battle between two contrasting self-serving appointments - and Lottomatica and Sisal resigned when their demands were not met.