Cyprus May Ban Online Gambling

December 05, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

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Cyprus, an island located in the Mediterranean, has been a location used by a number of online gambling companies. However, it looks as if Cyprus will join a number of other online gambling jurisdictions with some serious bans for online gambling.

At this time, the government of Cyprus has submitted their proposed law to the European Commission so that they can be sure that they are operating within the guidelines of the European Union. It is expected that the response will most likely not be too long in coming, and that there could be a chance that the proposed law could be voted on, and most likely passed, before the end of this year.

The law would see the introduction of a Gaming Board that would regulate the industry in Cyprus. However, it should be noted that the online gambling bill that is being submitted to the European Commission makes games such as poker, slots, and roulette illegal, while sports betting both online and offline would be legal.

There is a good chance that the European Commission will approve this potential online gambling law for Cyprus because the reasons stated when asking for the online gambling ban, are those that are there to protect the consumer. Cyprus argues that they wish to enforce an online gambling ban in order to guard against criminal activity.

The Attorney General Petros Clerides said: "We need to convince the European Commission that the ban is in the public interest and that it adheres to the principal of proportionality."

A police spokesman, Michalis Katsounotos said: "The police have repeatedly – publicly in fact – that online gambling is the originating cause of many crimes – whether these involve loan sharking, or threats, or blackmail, or even taking people hostage illegally. We have pointed out these dangers in various memos that have been submitted to the relevant authorities."

According to the police statistics in Cyprus, Ionas Nicolaou, a government official, noted that there are currently more than 600 online casinos, or online gambling operations, that are being operated from Cyprus. Currently, these operations are not illegal, but this is only the case because there are no specific laws in Cyprus at this time, which are related to online gambling.

The online gambling sites that are based in Cyprus are not only serving overseas players, but also Cypriots. There are estimated that show that Cypriots place wagers to the amount of hundreds of millions of Euros each year.