Cyprus blocks online gambling sites

Politicians in Cyprus passed legislation last year requiring online gambling firms to have a license to operate, and restricting all sports wagering and internet lottery and keno games to the Greek gaming company OPAP. Competition has been limited and will be even more restrictive with the legislation prohibiting betting exchanges such as Betfair which exited the market there losing as much as four percent of its revenues.

Operators are not happy with this situation and have sent letters of protest to the European Commission yet Cyprus continues to block and remove the web locations of some major operators who have tried to offer their services to Cypriot punters. The current blacklist is continually being updated by the National Betting Authority which has ignored the complaints.

Cyprus is close to a general election with the candidates for president mentioning gambling reform in their campaigns. Even though land-based casinos remain illegal under the same legislation passed last year that prohibits online betting other than sports betting, Cyprus granted two official land-based sports betting licenses last month to Intralot subsidiary Royal Highgate and U.K. based Stanleybet. European operators like Bwin.party, accounted for 22 of the 270 domains. PokerStars had 11 domains on the restricted list as well as many other well known operators.