Slovakia has created a blacklist of online betting sites that are currently operating in the country without a license with the country’s Minister of Finance endeavoring to put domain blockages in place in the coming weeks.
Included in the list of online betting sites that have been added to Slovakia’s betting website “blacklist”, which is the first of its kind to be introduced by the country, are leading online Gaming giants Bet365 and William Hill. The ten names on Slovakia’s initial list also include Bet-at-Home, Bwin, 888Holdings and 1xbet,
The blacklist also includes a number of online wagering domains that Slovakian officials have deemed to be “unacceptable and untrustworthy’ which is, however due to the fact that they have been operating remotely, providing Slovakian bettors with services without an appropriate local license. This practice was, however, made illegal in the country last year and if any websites featured on the list continue to operate their services in the country they will be doing so illegally
According to a note issued by the Ministry of Finance, it has issued warning notices to 17 online gambling operators. The note went on to say that of the seven operators that are not on the blacklist, two have withdrawn their services from Slovakia voluntarily, while five more operators have been given 10 days to terminate their local operations.
The blacklisted domains still have to be officially blocked while the ministry claims to be seeking court orders to implement specific domain blocks within the next few weeks.