|
A desperate plea by the Nicosia Race Club that its future is at risk if the gambling reform bill is allowed to proceed in its present form has led members of the House Finance Committee to express their reservations against the bill with a good chance that it will be broken up into pieces to satisfy all the pressure groups.
HFC Chairman Aristos Chrysostomou told reporters that the bill will not pass in its present form following strong opposition from the Nicosia Race Club, the Ayios Domethios Municipality, a number of betting companies, OPAP and social groups among many.
The amended gambling law allows all types of fixed odds bets to be carried out including on foreign horse races electronically or through branch network and at the same time it scraps the 25% bet tax paid by punters on fixed odds and 10% on local horse races. According to the bill, the companies managing the bets will pay 15% on gross bets to the state.
Opposition camp
The Greek gaming organisation OPAP is opposed to the bill because of its clause allowing for electronic betting, something that OPAP officials say will jeopardise the bilateral agreement signed between Cyprus and Greece.
OPAP has a network of 330 branches island wide and through a bilateral arrangement signed between Cyprus and Greece has a monopoly on lotto, Greek football and other games earning millions of pounds in revenue.
The Nicosia Race Club is opposed to the bill because it would allow fixed odd bets on foreign horse races and at the same time liberalise the local horse races. The NRC wants to oversee all betting on local horse races and maintain the official ban on foreign horse racing with officials concerned that if local punters are allowed access to foreign races, then there will be no money left for their 20 or so weekly fixtures.
OPAP and the NRC are also afraid that since bets will be allowed to be placed electronically.
| 
