Slovenia to regulate online gambling next year

Slovenia plans to regulate online gambling as early as next year with the country’s government expected to pass new legislation imminently.

The New Gaming Act will legalise online gambling and invite operators to apply for licences as of January 2014, with unlicensed operators at risk of heavy fines should they continue to offer their services to Slovenian citizens.

The government will retain ownership of the country’s national lottery, with a single sportsbetting licence and 30 casino concessions available for new applicants. All licences issued will come with a limited duration. Specific details including taxation conditions remain unclear.

Slovenia recently agreed to collaborate with other former Yugoslav states including Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to combat illegal gambling after signing a memorandum of understanding last year.

The MoU stated that methods used to combat unlicensed operators would extend to the blocking of IP addresses and transactions to and from unlicensed domains, efforts currently enforced by other European nations including Bulgaria, Belgium and Greece.