Gambling Authority Cyprus
- Gambling Authority Cyprus International
- National Gambling Authority Cyprus
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The National Betting Authority is organising the 3rd Safer Gambling Week (SGW), which will be held from the 5th till the 11th of October 2020 in Cyprus, with the participation of stakeholders in the gambling industry in Cyprus and abroad. The bodies responsible for the regulation of the gambling activities in the country are the Ministry of Finance, the Cyprus Gaming and Casino Supervision Commission, and the National Betting Authority. And according to the Cypriot gambling laws, m inors under 18 years of age are prohibited to participate in any gambling activities.
- The UK Gambling Commission and Gibraltar Gambling Authority are both highly respected. The licensing agencies in the Isle of Man, Alderney, Malta, Cyprus, Curacao, Antigua and Barbuda, and Kanhawake all are respected authorities.
- The gambling authority is a body corporate established in 2012 to oversee Gambling, and regulate and control the development of gambling establishments in Botswana.
- The gambling authority is a body corporate established in 2012 to oversee Gambling, and regulate and control the development of gambling establishments in Botswana.
Yesterday, Tuesday February 19th, all access to almost all online gambling sites was blocked by the internet providers in Cyprus on authority of the National Betting Authority. Read the announcement here (through Google translate).
It does come as a natural effect of the Cypriot Betting Act 2012, which in the fall of 2012 also saw many betting shops and similar venues offering access to online gaming services close.
The announcement from the National Betting Authority doesn’t mention, which sites should be blocked but only mentions that the list of websites, which has already been given to providers is not exhaustive and will be constant monitoring and updating. However, according to CalvinAyre.com, a total of 270 domains has been blocked.
At this time none of the affected companies seems to have made any public statement about the issue, although Betfair, whose share prices suffered immediately with a 5% plummet after the new Cypriot gambling regulation was revealed, has previously suggested that they would react to the gambling legislation:
The company believes the legislation contains serious flaws and, in certain areas, is inconsistent with European Union law.
Betfair…will be taking all necessary steps to reduce the impact on profitability through both legal action and cost management.
Source
Betfair, which ended up filing an EC complaint over the Cyprus gambling legislation (and other companies like Tipico, William Hill etc.) was involved in land based betting shops and venues that offered in-venue access to online casino games prior to the closing of land based betting shops in the fall as the first effect of the new Cypriot gambling legislation.
Other and more local effects of the gambling legislation (besides closing local betting shops) included burning down 4 OPAP outlets and attempts to the same on three others
Not everybody is sad
However, one company that will like the development is the Greek monopoly OPAP (and probably the Greek government that are part owners), which is in the middle of a privatization process – allegedly as part of the Troika bailout to Greece.
OPAP currently has a de facto monopoly on all sports betting and lotteries in Cyprus, although two land based betting licensees was awarded to Intralot and Stanleybet recently. Furthermore OPAP is currently allowed to offer it’s services in Cyprus on a tax free basis due to an agreement between Cyprus and Greece.
It has also been indirectly suggested that the primary reason, OPAP currently has a special position on the Cypriot Gambling market is because of it’s ”special” relationship with local politicians – At least if you take the quote from a Member of Parliament, that he “couldn’t be bought by anyone” literally.
Besides favoring OPAP, rumors are that this is the first step towards allowing further land based gambling activities in the country, which should include licenses to build regular casinos. That would definitely also present a welcome splash of cash into the country’s economy, which these days must be envying the house hold economy of Donald Duck.
Future of the monopoly?
As for now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. There’s probably not much doubt that the one-sided favoritism of OPAP is against EC regulations and it will be even more odd, when OPAP will be fully privatized and Cyprus at that time will be close to giving monopoly to a private company from another country.
One can understand the reasoning behind eg. The Danish governments protection of the monopoly of the national Danish supplier, as well as the way the Finnish government seeks to enhance the national monopoly, but allowing a foreign company to operate tax free with a monopoly status, does seem a little odd and makes you think what the reasons behind that might be.
At the moment however, you’ll need to find some way of circumvent the ISP-blocking, if you still want to gamble online from Cyprus.
Gambling Authority Cyprus International
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