It has been reported that the local police in Cyprus raided two premises that they suspected of offering online gambling one night last week.
Seven computer systems were confiscated by the police in their first raid and a further eight computer systems were seized by them during a second raid. The owners of both the premises were arrested on internet gambling charges.
It would appear as if the police in Cyprus have increased their operations against online gambling this year as last month they raided three betting shops during the early hours of the morning which resulted in the confiscation of massive sums of money, computers and many other items.
Justice Minister Loucas Louca revealed that the police had drawn up an anti-internet gambling operational plan and would deal with the problem of illegal internet gambling by enforcing the law.
Louca added that he would like the police to have further ammunition to deal with illegal internet gambling aggressively as it has turned out to be a social problem and he was therefore hopeful that parliament would finally pass the relevant bill. The police feel that the penalties are currently not adequate enough to deal with the online gambling problem and have complained about this fact on numerous occasions.
A Cyprus police spokesperson, Michalis Katsounotos, revealed earlier this year that police operations of the kind conducted during last week only have temporary effects as it is not long before the owners of the premises return to their illegal gambling activities by merely replacing all the equipment every time that it is seized by the police during a raid.
