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Cyprus is not the first market to consider whether to block its welfare recipients from using their benefits to gamble, Brazil introduced a similar ban in 2025.
During a session of the House Audit Committee last Thursday, members of parliament (MPs), the Data Protection Commissioner and representatives from the Welfare Benefits Administration Service (WBAS), the Gaming & Casino Supervision Commission and the National Betting Authority (NBA) convened to discuss ways to identify and restrict gambling activity among GMI beneficiaries, as reported by Cyprus Mail.
While the intention is to protect vulnerable households and ensure welfare is spent on essential needs, proposed measures are being complicated by legal, technical and privacy obstacles.
About Hades' Star
The committee considered the bill once, on 3 February, and has since taken no further action.
Meanwhile the government has been approaching the issue via a new bill. Sports minister Sadok Mourali said in November 2024 that a gambling and sports betting bill had been circulated for consultation. Twenty-six public institutions received that consultation, including the central bank, Competition Council and financial intelligence authority.
A year later he said the draft had been completely revised to bring it into line with international standards on sports betting manipulation and money laundering.
About Hades' Star
After assessing part of a 75-page PDF spreadsheet of transactions provided by Evolution, Spectrum found crypto wagers had been placed on Evolution games provided by Hub88, as alleged by Black Cube.
Up to 1,124 occurrences of virtual currencies being used were discovered by Spectrum, which added up to 11.5% of the sessions included in the spreadsheet provided by Evolution.
“Spectrum notes that Evolution relies upon its clients to develop and implement these additional AML and KYC procedures. Further, Evolution does not review the operator’s compliance with this requirement of enhanced due diligence,” the report says of Evolution’s compliance processes for preventing the use of virtual currencies.
