The government of Estonia has just announced that they will be begin blocking access to over 200 online gambling sites that do not hold a license within the country. This move has been criticised by the European Union and by organizations that are against the censorship of the Internet. While the government attempts to block online gambling operators, they will continue to allow citizens to visit the Olympic Casino, a licensed operator within the country. Their is no mention of whether or not the government will be blocking access to casino news portals.

All of the top online casinos and poker rooms will no longer be able to offer gambling to Estonians. With a little research, Estonians will be able to find ways around the ISP blocks to access their favorite online casinos. Online gambling operators could set-up new domains that aren’t in the list of blocked online gambling sites and filter in Estonian players through these new domains. Their are plenty of ways to avoid the Internet block and the Estonian government will eventually realize that censoring the Internet won’t stop citizens from gambling offshore.

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Post tags: casinos, censorship, estonia, gambling, gambling sites, isp, online gambling

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The Estonian Tax and Customs Board has made it clear that unlicensed online gambling
will no longer be tolerated in Estonia. They’ve compiled a list of over 200 online
gambling sites that continue to allow Estonian citizens to gamble at their sites.
A new gambling law came into force on January 1st that made it illegal to operate
an online gambling site without acquiring a license from the Estonian government.

The first online casino in Estonia launched earlier this year, Olympic Casino which
is fully licensed by the government of Estonia and legally accepts Estonian players.
Olympic Casino welcomes the news that the government will continue to crack down
on unlicensed operators when they hold the only license to accept Estonian players.

It is unclear how the Estonian Tax and Customs Board plans to pick a fight with
offshore gambling operators when they are legally outside of Estonia’s jurisdiction.
It may be that the Estonian government is planning to censor the Internet by
forcing the local ISPs to restrict access to offshore online gambling domains.

Nobody knows what the next steps will be. Some of the top online gambling sites
have made significant investments in advertising within Estonia and this advertising
revenue would disappear if the Estonian government restricts access to foreign-based
gambling sites. The best option would be to allow foreign operators to accept bets
from Estonian citizens and offer better incentives at Estonia’s licensed casinos
in order to entice Estonians to gamble at casinos within their own country.

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Post tags: estonia, gambling, gambling law, gambling operators, olympic casino, online gambling

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