Chaos as Cyprus Decides Online Gaming Legality

Anyone who has ever been dealt a virtual hand of cards or clicked the virtual button of an online video slot game will be well aware of the pivotal role that the tiny Mediterranean island of Cyprus has played in the rapid growth of the online gambling industry.

While other governments were debating, somewhat incongruously, the moral aspects of online betting and seeking to ban it within their borders, the island’s entrepreneurs were simultaneously building a billion dollar industry by acting as hosts to a plethora of offshore online casinos and poker rooms built to circumvent the gaming laws of the United States and other countries in which online gambling legislation was unfavourable to the creation of a local industry.

Now it seems the government of the Greek-ruled territory of Cyprus is as divided as the beleaguered island’s sovereignty in its view of whether these lucrative online gambling operations should be permitted to continue.

At the moment, online gambling in Cyprus is subject to a law amended in 2007 to meet EU legislation and known as the General Betting Law. In essence this states that it is up to individual EU members to decide their own policy and, for the past three years, the government has made no move on the industry. Recently, however, certain government members have being making noises of their intention to see online gambling banned and blocking the ISPs of internet casinos and other gambling sites. Curiously, the proposed ban would affect sports betting or horseracing.

Perhaps fortunately, the ministers appear to be seriously divided on the issue and the Cypriot Justice Minister is equally vociferous in his suggestion that regulation not banning is the only sensible policy.

Into the already confused arena, the voices of both the chief of police and the state president have been heard to express the resolve that no licensed casino whether land-based or virtual will be permitted to operate on their half of the island as long as they continue to hold office.

Meanwhile, back at the games lobbies, operators are totally confused as to whether they should carry on regardless or prepare to seek pastures new.

One might have thought that every Euro to find its way into Greek coffers would be seen as a bonus, given the financial status of mainland Greece and it’s widely hoped that the threats will prove to be nothing more than a storm in a glass of Ouzo. Should this not be the case, the potential damage to the industry could prove extremely costly, at least in the short term.