"An EU company for gambling operations" — the market uses this phrase for two different things, and telling them apart is this page's main task. The first is a myth: that a "European gambling licence" exists which, once obtained, works across the Union. In the European Commission's own wording, it does not: there is no sector-specific EU legislation in the field of gambling services, and member states are autonomous in the way they organise their gambling services. The second is reality: a company incorporated in an EU member state and licensed under that state's national regime. This page is about the second: how a member state is chosen, what its licence gives, and what this means for a Georgian group.
Two official quotations stand at the edge of this page, and everything is built on them. The Commission: there is no sector-specific EU legislation in the field of gambling services; and under EU law no particular system is favoured over the others. The Estonian Tax and Customs Board (EMTA): a licence of an EEA country does not give you the right to offer gambling in Estonia — and vice versa. Mutual recognition, in other words, does not work: one member state's licence means nothing in the next. Everything about an "EU company" in gambling therefore begins with a question: which member state?
The criteria for choosing a member state
The picture confirmed by the Commission is this: a growing number of member states have established licensing systems allowing more than one operator; some maintain monopolies; and EU law favours no particular system over the others. Choosing a member state is therefore a comparison of concrete regimes on five parameters: eligibility requirements (who may apply), minimum capital, fees, activity restrictions (for example "gambling only" rules), and the conditions of market access. On this page you have two officially countable bookends — Malta and Estonia — and their comparison shows exactly how far apart the members are.