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Albania Says Bye to Online Casinos

Albania Says Bye to Online Casinos

Added: October 31, 2013

The neverending quest to bring online gaming entertainment to the world is always presented with obstacles that are hard to overcome. The reason these obstacles are a real difficulty is because they are often tied to strict government regulation that online casinos cannot even fight. This week news broke that the Albanian authorities are planning to stop online gambling offshore once and for all. Keep reading to find all the details about why this small European country has decided to cut ties with the online gambling industry.

The Republic of Albania has a long story of political struggle, but in recent years it has made incredible progress that has even enabled the country to apply to be a Member State of the European Union. It is currently ruled by President Bujar Nishami and Prime Minister Edi Rama was appointed to form a government when his Socialist political party and coalition won the June parliamentary election in 2013. Rama is the man behind the latest decision regarding online gambling in Albania.

Last Friday, Prime Minister Rama said that the government is currently preparing legal bills to block access to offshore online gambling operators. This is justified by deeming it an effort to stop the outflow of money as Albania is considered one of the poorest countries in Europe. It is estimated that Albanians spent around €500-€700 million a year on offshore online gambling operators; the statistics have been provided by domestic and international experts who managed to calculate and agree on the numbers.

Ever since Rama came to power, his officials have run checks on approximately 1,300 casinos and betting shops in the country's cities and small villages. Most of them have been closed down and the owners were sued for running an illegal business and tax evasion, even though there is no legal protocol for them to follow. Also, no information was given on how much is spent on gambling at a domestic level, which makes us wonder if the Albanian government is attempting to monopolize gambling as a national form of entertainment in order to collect all the revenue.

The dangers of this is that their gambling services could turn out to not be as diverse and appealing as the plethora of offshore operators could offer Albanian nationals. The other option could have been to regulate online gambling from offshore operators by taxing the companies and the winnings, but this solution seems to come off as too much of a hassle for governmental authorities and online gambling companies across the globe.