Albanian government decides to shut down casinos and betting houses

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has announced that the government is going to shut down all casinos and bookmakers in residential areas.

After the government’s meeting he announced: “Starting from 31st December 2018, all online casinos will cease to exist and this news will be more than welcomed by Albanian families.”

He added that bookmakers will also be subject to the new deadline.

“Starting from January 1st, no bookmakers and no online casinos will be open for business inside residential areas of the territory of Albania”, Mr. Rama said.

He said that a licensed and controlled online gambling regime will be introduced: “A new regime will be in place until December 31st in order to license and control this activity remotely through the internet.”

Rama also said that media broadcasting adverts of a gambling nature, will be penalised or even shut down.

“The current law forbids advertising of bookmakers and gambling and this law has been violated by all media without exception, therefore I am warning them that they have 24 hours to remove all adverts of this nature”.

The government has also suspended the Gambling Commission, ostensibly for digital transformation.

Source: balkaneu.com