SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
European gambling operator Stanleybet is suing the government of Cyprus for breaching European Union trade and business policies.
Filing a claim under Stanleybet Malta, the operator is seeking compensation in excess of €12.5 million for loss of operating profits, legal costs and restriction of services relating to the ‘2012 Betting Law’ which banned wagering on Virtual Sports terminals.
Furthermore, Stanleybet which operates in Cyprus under a Class A licence, claims that its corporate reputation was damaged as a result of ‘police and prosecutorial actions and measures adopted against them’, following a series of raids in 2014 on its retail properties confiscating equipment and damaging operations.
Stanleybet governance states that the 2012 Betting Law should be repealed as the Cypriot government did not notify the final draft to the European Commission prior to it coming into effect, therefore breaching EU business practices.
As a further protective measure, Stanleybet governance is seeking to add an injunction prohibiting any legal/criminal action against its properties offering virtual event services to its customers.
Issuing a corporate statement, Stanleybet CEO John Whittaker commented on the firm’s claim
“The Stanleybet Group has been successfully fighting for the recognition of its right to engage in the gambling and betting business in numerous member states of the European Union for more than fifteen years,”
“We have been before the Court of Justice on circa ten occasions and on countless occasions before the European Commission and the national courts of all levels, where in the end we have always been able to obtain through European law what we had been unjustly denied domestically in the first place. We believe in the rule of law, and have no doubt that the Cypriot Courts will do justice to our rights”.
The Cypriot government have ten days to respond to Stanleybet’s claim.
