Bulgaria tweaks blacklist

Just on two months since adding Bet7days.com, PartyPoker and Tobet.com to its nascent blacklist the Bulgarian Gambling Commission – now under new leadership – has executed a volte face and taken the three websites off as now compliant with its rather confusing regulations.

This would appear to indicate that the operators have made their peace with the Commission through taking up licensing in the Eastern European state.

Just two months back Bulgaria added 28 offending websites to the 20 it had already blacklisted as accessing Bulgarian punters without the necessary licence…the problem was that the legislation introducing online gambling regulation and licensing had not yet been properly implemented, leaving operators with a chicken-and-egg situation.

There was added confusion when several operators, including UK giant William Hill, protested their inclusion on the black list, asserting that they actually blocked Bulgarians from playing on their websites.

There were suggestions that perhaps the compilers of the list had botched the task, in some cases merely copying the blacklists of other nations, although this was never proved.

Earlier this month Ognemir Mitev was appointed to head up the Commission, replacing Ivan Enicherov, who had only been in the hot seat since April this year.

The announcement of the new gambling chief did not include any explanations for the change, but industry speculation suggested it may have been due to the bad timing of the blacklist, its questionable content and the delays in implementing the supporting legislation.

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