Cyprus betting operator to be investigated

The local attorney-general requested the police to investigate OPAP.

Cyprus.- Costas Clerides, attorney-general of Cyprus, commanded the local police to start an investigation that involves OPAP. The official ordered the measure after the latter declined to show its financial records for a government audit.

OPAP officials had refused to release its financial records stating that they wouldn’t do it unless the state treasurer agreed to sign a confidentiality agreement with them. According to the Cyprus Mail, the treasurer of the House finance committee asked the attorney general how to proceed, and was later informed that they shouldn’t sign the confidentiality agreement. Last year, the country announced its intention to regulate OPAP’s betting games via legislation rather than through a bilateral agreement with Greece. Cyprus was left with no choice given that the Greek government sold its one-third stake in OPAP to private operators in 2013.

Last month, OPAP was under the spotlight after the auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides issued a report where it’s detailed that the company failed to identify several financial practices. There’s currently a legislation under consideration that would force OPAP to pay Cyprus 24 percent of its gross profits in exchange of the rights to the monopoly over lottery games for a specified period of time.