Bulgaria moves to regulate online gambling

Bulgaria's parliament adopted on Thursday a new law to regulate online gambling for the first time, its press office said. Internet gambling and online betting had not been strictly regulated in Bulgaria, opening the door to an ever growing number of scam websites. The new law sets special licensing regimes for all online casino operators, both Bulgarian and foreign. It also obliges Internet providers to block access to unlicensed gambling websites, which were also to be included in a special blacklist. This controversial requirement was approved by parliament despite opposition from Internet service providers and rights groups, who said this might set a precedent for filtering other websites. Lawmakers also banned direct advertisement of gambling games. The new regulations will also bring another 100 million leva (50 million euros, $67 million) of annual revenues to the public budget, according to parliamentarians of the ruling right-wing GERB party.