The beginning of the week saw the Government of Slovakia publish the first-ever online gambling websites blacklist in the country. The list includes online gambling domains that are regarded as unacceptable and untrustworthy due to the fact they have provided local players with services without an operating license issued by local authorities.
The Finance Ministry of the country has already released a list containing the first ten operators blocked from providing their services in Slovakia. As a matter of fact, the blacklist includes the names of some of the largest gambling operators on a global scale, such as William Hill, bet365, 888Holdings, Bwin, Bet-at-Home and 1xbet. There is also one gambling operator licensed in Curacao – Eatsleepbet.com, as well as two Malta-licensed ones – Kajot-casino.com and Lvbet.com.
As mentioned above, the Slovakian Financial Ministry released a special note at the beginning of the week, revealing that warning notices had been issued to a total of 17 iGaming operators. As the Ministry shared, ten of these operators had themselves suspended because they had been running their services without local approval. Also, two other operators had chosen to exit the country voluntarily, meaning that they would no longer offer their services to local customers.
The blacklisted operator’s domains have to be officially blocked. The Finance Ministry has also revealed that special court orders would be needed in order to complete the process of blocking the domains in the upcoming weeks.
The five remaining operators which had received warning notices and had been given 10 days to officially close their services in the country before the Government does so. Gambling companies that continue offering their services to local players would be imposed financial penalties amounting to up to €500,000.
The Slovakian authorities’ crackdown on gambling operators in the country has provoked a lot of companies to exit the local market voluntarily, after the country’s Government officially announced that new gambling regulations enforcement is to be started. What is more, the country’s authorities have not limited themselves to iGaming crackdown. A few months ago, gambling, except for sports betting shops and lottery retailers, was officially suspended within the city limits of Bratislava, with the current casino and slots hall operators being allowed to operate there until the expiration of their operating licenses.
As revealed by the Slovakian Government, it would begin enforcing new gambling regulatory rules, under which companies that operate under a online sports betting license would be forced to pay a tax, estimated to 27% of their gross gaming revenue generated in the country. On the other hand, under the new rules, the state-owned TIPOS national lottery would be entitled with the responsibility for online casino and poker activity.
The blacklist procedures have provoked some local providers of Internet services express their concerns with the harsh measures taken by the Government, as well as by the latter’s decision to provide them with new responsibilities without paying them extra money for that.
Internet services providers are not the ones involved in the process. As the Slovakian Finance Ministry revealed, it is to also put more pressure on local financial institutions to make them stop processing payments on behalf of the gambling operators included in the Government’s blacklist.
- Author
Daniel Williams
