Cyprus is a country where gaming licenses have been issued relatively recently. Despite regularly held poker tournaments and the love of the inhabitants of Cyprus for gambling, it is quite difficult to obtain a license for an online gaming facility.
The license for bookmakers began to be issued only in 2016. And the first license for a land-based casino was also issued in 2016. Online casinos officially remain banned for the moment, but the authorities are expected to review the legislation very soon. One regulator is enough to control online projects.
At least the National Betting Authority (NBA) is functioning. This is the official regulator for issuing licenses for bookmakers.
Since online casinos are officially prohibited in Cyprus, active online gaming activities are taken over by bookmakers.
There are two types of licenses for bookmakers
At the same time, I would like to note that there are a lot of unofficial online casinos that the Cypriot authorities do not pay attention to.
The cost of a license to open a betting office in Cyprus is:
An application for a license can only be submitted by a company officially registered in Cyprus or having a branch in this jurisdiction.
The minimum authorized capital for starting a business in the online gaming field is 500 thousand euros.
In addition, the application must be accompanied by a bank statement with an amount on the operator's account of at least 550 thousand euros.
Other requirements for obtaining a license in the jurisdiction of Cyprus:
The tax rate on the monthly profit of the company is 13%. At the same time, 10% goes to the treasury of the Republic of Cyprus, and the remaining 3% goes directly to the NBA.
All applications are considered very quickly - within two weeks. At the same time, all bookmakers are required to carry out their activities in the com.cy domain zone. Thus, Cyprus is interested in financially secure operators who are ready to conduct gambling activities in this jurisdiction.
Accordingly, owners of online casinos with good financial opportunities will most likely be able to open their projects in Cyprus.
According to the law, the gaming website is required to provide full information about the license agreement, as well as information regarding the services provided to the player. The site is obliged to carry out checks for the conformity of players.
In addition, at the moment, NBA is actively working with banks in Cyprus to carry out transactions exclusively through local banks.
Cyprus is a country with excellent financial indicators of people's earnings. This jurisdiction is just beginning its activities in the online gaming field. Therefore, companies with good financial opportunities should create their projects in a country where bets and gambling are so fond of. Collapse
