Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency (NRA), which regulates gambling in the Balkan country, has identified a number of illegal online gambling websites under the Betandyou brand. Following that, the director general of the NRA, Rumen Spetsov, issued a cease and desist order, asking the sites to immediately stop taking bets.
Betandyou Available, Yet Unlicensed
All sites in question operate under the Betandyou brand. These include betandyou.com, betandyou.cd, betandyou1.com and their mobile versions. However, the Betandyou brand does not hold a license to operate in the country.
Under the Bulgarian gambling law, all online operators must hold a license before offering iGaming products in the country. Following thorough research, the NRA determined that Betandyou’s sites are all accessible from Bulgaria, in spite of the operator’s lack of license.
The Control Department reported that all six domains under the Betandyou brand can be easily accessed in the country. The operator allows Bulgarian visitors to interact with all available menus and multimedia on its platform. Furthermore, players in Bulgaria can make an account and talk with the customer service teams as regular customers. This also means that they are able to make deposits and participate in games offered by the unlicensed operator.
The NRA used the Iris Investigation Platform by Domain Tools to fully explore the technical characteristics of betandyou’s site. It finally came to the conclusion that Betandyou is, without any doubt, a site that is operating illegally.
Spetsov Orders Betandyou to Stop Taking Bets from Locals
After the NRA determined that Betandyou is an unlicensed gambling site, Spetsov issued a cease and desist order, asking the sites to immediately stop taking bets. The NRA director general said that Betandyou has three days to stop offering gambling games in the country.
He added that all parties whom this order concerns are considered as informed as of the day the order has been published.
While illegal gambling remains an issue the NRA has to deal with, Bulgaria has a flourishing legal gambling and betting market. A week ago, BF Games, a developer of online slots, forayed into the Eastern European country through a deal with Winbet. As a result, fifteen of the provider’s titles are now available to customers in the country.
In October, 3 Oaks Gaming cleared the regulatory requirements and was greenlit for launch in Bulgaria.