Albania to Re-Legalize Sports Betting After Four-Year Ban

Albania to Re-Legalize Sports Betting After Four-Year Ban

Albania will re-legalize sports betting on January 1, 2023. It comes four years after the country banned casinos, online gambling, and sports betting. Also, the government is expecting revenue from sports betting to solve its deficit problem.

According to eSports betting sources, the government is facing more than 90 percent of debt. Also, there’s a pressure of subsidizing rising energy costs. The government is also looking for ways to fund support for the vulnerable during the global crisis.

The move has been in the works since the summer, and it will finally take effect on January 1 of next year. Pay per head experts estimate that annual tax revenue will total around €17 million ($16.9 million).

Re-Legalize Sports Betting in Albania

Albania to Re-Legalize Sports Betting After Four-Year BanAs of midnight on December 31, 2018, all forms of gambling were illegal outside a few licensed casinos in Albania. Hundreds of betting shops and gambling sites were closed at the time, and there were even attempts to ban access to gambling sites on the internet. However, arrests continued to happen practically weekly as activity persisted in the country’s illicit betting and gaming enterprises.

In August, a group representing various interests in the sports industry petitioned the government to reinstate supervised sports betting, stating that doing so would help one of Europe’s poorest countries generate much-needed money. However, the petition said they are not suggesting the full spectrum of gaming be legalized, including online casinos or bingo parlors. Instead, their plan calls for fully open books and league-supervised online sports betting.

According to bookie PPH sources, stakeholders also recommend allocating profits from sports betting to bolster the performance of national sports teams; they also call for regulating sports betting through licensed businesses that include domestic and international names. They also suggest setting upper limits on age and wagers.

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