Online gambling bill frozen

NO proper consultation with interested parties has taken place in the preparation of a law regulating electronic gambling, it emerged yesterday.

Discussion of the bill in parliament has been frozen until the proper consultations take place, which are expected to be completed by July.

“Our aim is to complete examination of the bill by the first week of July so that it is sent to the European Commission,” for approval, said Ionas Nicolaou, chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee. “Unfortunately today we found ourselves faced with a new problem which no one expected.”

Nicolaou said they have asked the state to complete the consultations in 15 days.

SAKOP, an NGO dealing with social problems, had been saying all along that the proper procedure for the preparation of the bill had not been followed by the state.

The group even filed a complaint with the Ombudswoman accusing Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis of not following the Consultation Guide.

According to an EU directive, there must be a public consultation and an impact study on the repercussions before the preparation of any bill.

SAKOP also said that no impact study had been carried out before discussion of the bill.

“What we have determined is that the necessary consultation with all those involved was not carried out,” DIKO deputy Nicolas Papadopoulos said.

SAKOP said it had repeatedly sent letters to the government but “were completely ignored.”

The NGO also charged that no provisions have been made in the bill to help families whose members have gambling problems.

Online gambling is big business in Cyprus, turning over some €2.5 billion a year.

At present online gambling in Cyprus comes under the Betting Law, amended in 2007 to comply with EU legislation for the free provision of services.

Now, lawmakers propose to re-amend the law by inserting a clause that would exclude electronic gambling from this list of services.

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