Cyprus to start ban on online gambling sites

The government is preparing to block more than 2500 online gambling sites.

Cyprus.- The National Betting Authority (EAS) from Cyprus said that they’re in the process of blocking the sites that are currently not operating under the guidelines of the 2012 government’s legislation concerning online casinos, online poker and sports betting, all banned in the European country.

Earlier this year the EAS announced that they would start accepting license applications in October from online operators that offered online sports betting and wanted to clear the ones who were not involved in the activity and still offered online gambling services to the national population.

Earlier this 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. In the briefing they established that the agreement would be coming to an end and that the government is ready to offer the license to another operator that will have to pay at least 24 percent tax on gross profits.