Gambling regulators in Cyprus are on a mission to protect problem gamblers and young people from getting in over their heads in online and land-based gambling. To that end, the country is shopping around for a developer to aid them in creating a state-of-the-art self-exclusion platform that offers both one-click sign ups, along with robust coverage designed to avoid workarounds. It’s an ambitious mission that, if successful, is likely to be copied throughout Europe and possibly North America.
The announcement of the new system came cloaked in a haze of legalese on the Cyprus National Betting Authority’s (NBA) official website. The elegantly titled, “Public Consultation – Unified Self-exclusion Platform” establishes its legal standing and launches right into a sleek description of the people the system is designed to help. “Pursuant to the provisions of article 15 of the Betting Law of 2019 L.37(I)/2019, the National Betting Authority (hereafter the “Authority”) is responsible for the drafting of prevention and protection measures for players, young people and vulnerable groups of the population against addiction to betting,” it reads.
It goes on to sketch out a system that allows problem gamblers to block their access to all nine of the country’s licensed online gambling sites and its six land-based betting shops. Gamblers would be able to easily set a self-exclusion period that lasts from just a few weeks to a permanent exclusion. It also calls for operators to refund all of the money in a self-excluded player’s account within five days of his or her’s registration on the site.
Ease-of-use is the key feature the country is looking for and is hoping to have the system up by 2022.