According to a study by the European Parliament, seven of the EU27 countries ban online gambling through legislation. Such legislation also exists in Cyprus. Of the remaining 20 countries, only 13 allow it, meaning that over 50% of EU Countries care to protect their citizens and their families.

Yet in Cyprus, the idea was officially promoted that once an online gambling company registers in an EU country, we cannot prohibit it from operating in Cyprus. If this were the ruling policy, by now the European Commission should have taken Germany and other prohibiting countries to the European Court of Justice. But the policy which is now followed by the EC appears to be leaving the decision to ban or not to ban at the discretion of the member countries.

This policy appears to have become absolute following the decision of the European Court of Justice that ruled in the case of bwin, in September 2009 that European Union law may allow EU countries to ban foreign websites if the intention is to stop crime.

Cyprus has a bitter experience of many such crimes, the most recent, the arrest of eight persons that are said to have planned five murders for the control of gambling. The police stated that this included both outlawed as well as legal gambling, the latter has reached sales of €384,000,000 in 2008.

Will the authorities in Cyprus promoting the legalisation of online gambling take note of the trends in the EU? Why was the Cyprus legislation set aside?

Who is going to compensate Maria Savva and many others, mother of a son who lost €300,000 in online gambling and whose marriage was destroyed? Savva herself made a plea against gambling during a TV broadcast in March 2010? How hard can the heart of the authorities be, will they not admit their mistakes?

Pavlos Lemesis,

Limassol

Source: CyprusMail