Slovakia's Regulator Warns Internet Providers of €500,000 Fines for Not Blocking Illegal Gambling Sites

Slovakia's gambling regulator says some internet and mobile providers are "systematically" dodging their duty to block its list of more than 1,000 illegal sites by pleading technical obstacles. It is already dealing with a case against a major mobile operator.

• Slovakia's Gambling Regulatory Authority (ÚRHH) says several internet providers and mobile operators are "systematically" circumventing their legal duty to block websites on its list of prohibited gambling offers
• Some providers "deliberately invoke technical obstacles" to blocking, which lets Slovak players keep reaching illegal sites, according to the regulator's notice of 24 September
• Breaching the blocking duty carries a fine of up to €500,000 under the Gambling Act; the law also sets a minimum of €10,000, which the notice does not mention
• The ÚRHH says it has fined several providers before and is now dealing with a case involving a "significant mobile operator"; neither the operator nor past fines have been named
• The blocklist has grown from 850 website entries in January to 1,019 on 21 September, after a law change this year let the regulator block sites without a court order

"Several Entities Are Systematically Circumventing" the Law

The ÚRHH published the warning on 24 September, reminding internet providers and mobile operators that they must "technically prevent access" to the websites on its list of prohibited offers. Under section 85 of Act No. 30/2019 on gambling, the regulator publishes the list and updates it every Monday. Network and service providers are required under section 85(12) to block the listed sites, and payment providers to block payments to listed accounts.

The regulator's language is unusually direct. "Several entities are systematically circumventing this legal obligation," it said. "Instead of fulfilling their obligations rigorously, some internet providers and mobile operators deliberately invoke technical obstacles to blocking, which lets Slovak players keep accessing illegal gambling." It called such cases "unacceptable" and said it has already fined several providers for failing to block, and is "currently also dealing with a further case concerning a significant mobile operator on the Slovak market". It did not name the operator or give details of earlier penalties.

Under section 96(1)(j) of the Act, a provider that fails to block listed sites faces a fine of between €10,000 and €500,000. "Our goal is to achieve effective blocking of prohibited offers," said Libuša Baranová, the ÚRHH's director general, in a translation of the Slovak. "In cases of proven breach of obligations, the authority will proceed in accordance with the law, including by imposing proportionate sanctions." The regulator also said it will propose legislative amendments for more effective blocking and better enforceability of the obligations.

A Longer List, Without a Court in the Way

Until the end of 2025, blocking in Slovakia required a court order for each site. Since January, the ÚRHH's own decision has been enough, according to Slovak daily SME. The regulator's machine-readable lists show the effect: 850 website entries on 5 January, 942 on 6 July and 1,019 on 21 September, with 169 entries on the current list added this year. In the whole of 2025, according to the ÚRHH's annual report, 87 websites were added, each after a court application.

The same report shows how enforcement against the blockers has worked so far. Of eight supervisions of the blocking duty in 2025, two found breaches by electronic communications providers and one by a payment provider, and all three were referred to administrative proceedings. The regulator says it has examined far more sites than it lists, and that most stopped offering gambling in Slovakia after a formal notice.

The market being protected is growing. Slovak gambling gross gaming revenue rose 7.2% to €1.55 billion in 2025, of which online accounted for €568.6 million, and online casino's share of the total reached 36.6%, up from 21.6% in 2021, according to the ÚRHH.

Blocking Only Works if the Last Link Holds

A blocklist is only as strong as the networks that apply it. Slovakia has removed the slowest part of its process, the court order, and the list has grown faster in nine months than in all of last year. That moves the bottleneck to the providers, and the regulator's notice is an admission that some of them are not keeping up, or are choosing not to. The technical excuse is not a trivial one: domain blocking is easy to evade, mirror sites multiply and DNS workarounds are widely known. But the notice's point is that the law places the duty on the provider, not on its judgement of whether blocking is worthwhile.

The Mobile Operator Case Will Set the Price of Non-Compliance

Naming the potential maximum while withholding the name of the operator under investigation is a pressure tactic, and a sensible one. The outcome of that case will tell every provider in the country what failing to block actually costs. A fine near the €10,000 floor would confirm that ignoring the list is cheaper than enforcing it; one near €500,000 would make blocking a compliance priority. The regulator's promise of new legislation suggests it expects the current tools to fall short. Slovakia's blocking regime has been rebuilt this year. Whether it works will be decided by what the ÚRHH does with its first large case against a network operator.