Betfair on Cyprus

July 14, 2012

Earlier this week we bought you news of some sweeping changes to gambling legislation and gambling tax in Cyprus. To summarize, the Government of Cyprus has mad online gambling illegal, and is also levying a much heavier tax on both betting shops, and punters.

Betfair, who is a major player in the European online gambling market, is understandably concerned by the high possibility of a significant drop in revenue because of the changes introduced by the Government of Cyprus. Especially in light of the fact the OLAP, the company which operates the national lottery in Cyprus has been made exempt from both gambling legislation changes and tax laws!

Due to these extraordinary circumstances, Betfair is threatening to drag the Government of Cyprus in to an international court, to oppose the changes to gambling legislation and gambling tax in Cyprus, which could significantly affect the company’s revenue. Indeed, a quick glance at Betfair shares shows us that since the news broke of the Cyprus closing its doors to online gambling the share price has dropped almost 5%!

The communications director of Betfair, Jonathan Oates, has stated that, “This particular piece of legislation has been drafted for some while and we were hopeful it wouldn’t come to this, we were hoping to expand if the exchange had been regulated.”

We can only applaud the fact that Betfair is willing to stand up and take on a major European government over an issue which is so close to the hearts of all online slots fans. We find it absolutely incredulous that whilst other Western nations including the USA, UK, Italy and Ireland are taking steps to make online gambling a legal service, and this reduce the impact of less than respectable offshore online gambling sites, that the Government of Cyprus would now take such draconian measures. We truly hope on behalf of all online slots fans that Betfair does not pull its punches, and helps to have these antiquated bills overruled in favor of friendlier laws for online gambling operators.

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