Cyprus

In January 2018, Cyprus resubmitted its proposed new regulatory framework for gambling after the European Commission and Malta opposed its original draft. The EU member state’s Betting Law of 2017 was submitted to the EC in June 2017, and contained two amended pieces of legislation aimed at remedying several earlier infringements with the 2012 law identified by the EC, in particular the perceived unequal treatment of OPAP and other gambling operators.

The final Betting Law of 2019 instead created an open licensing system for betting, with Class B (online) licenses available to private operators who meet strict localisation, AML and technical standards, but it kept the long-standing ban on online casino and peer-to-peer games.

In 2012, Cyprus banned all forms of online gaming except for fixed-odds sports betting and lottery sales. Betting exchanges are prohibited as well.

To offer sports betting in Cyprus, a Cyprus online gaming license is required.

In addition to prohibiting online gaming, Cyprus has created an online gaming site blacklist. ISPs in Cyprus are required to block access to all the sites on that list. So far, more than 270 sites have been placed on the blacklist.