Slovakia blacklists more online gambling operators

The European country has added six more domains to its blacklist of online gambling sites.

Slovakia.- Slovak authorities revealed that six more operators have been added to the blacklist of online gambling domains operating and serving local punters without the government’s approval. Last month, the Finance Ministry came up with the first list of banned sites.

In mid-July, Finance Ministry State Secretary Radko Kuru released the first 10 names of what is going to become a blacklist of online gambling sites offering their services without the approval of the local regulator. However, the crackdown on illegal gambling started on July 1, after the country adopted a new legislation. The governmental entity had said that they would be in search for sites with gambling activities that were in violation of the law, and then they would call them to force them to shut down their services. The sites are placed on a blacklist if they don’t comply with the orders in the period of time stipulated by Slovak laws. Authorities could impose fines as high as US$570k for running the illegal sites.

Internet service providers are waiting for a judicial order before blocking the sites, as local news outlet Zive.sk informed, but they are ready to do it. Spokeswoman for O2, Tereza Molnar, said that they’re still waiting for regulations from the authorities on illegal gambling blocking. Moreover, the providers have expressed their opposition since they don’t know where to find the necessary funding for the unexpected work.

Whilst it was known that William Hill, 888 holdings, Bwin and LVbet.com were among the first ten blocked sites, the government has yet to release the list of six operators as they still have time to comply with the law.