Bulgaria lawmakers agree on internet gambling bill

The Bulgarian Focus news agency reports that the eastern European country’s lawmakers have approved an online gambling regulatory measure, and have already started to move on implementing internet blocks on unlicensed operators.

The ban will become effective after regulations are finalised by the State Gambling Commission and the approval of the Sofia Regional Court has been obtained.

The practicalities of the ban were discussed at the second reading of the bill in a discussion on the use of black lists to exclude foreign and unlicensed operators from the local market.

The new law sets licensing requirements for all online casino operators, both Bulgarian and foreign, and makes provision for requests to Internet service providers to block access to unlicensed gambling websites, despite earlier protests against this tactic by the ISPs and Internet action groups worried about the practise extending beyond internet gambling.

There are also clauses restricting gambling advertising to licensed operators.

Government advisers have estimated that the regulation of online gambling could bring another 100 million leva (Euro 50 million) of annual revenues to the fiscus.

Related and similar