8.500 domains and links were brought down by the Authority of Electronic and Postal Communications (AKEP); with 481 arrests and thousands of other corroborators.

This is the overview of the last 3 years, since the changes to the gambling law came into force, banning all gambling games and sites from operating in the country.

Many found alternative ways to continue on this path even though they were now treading on dangerous territory. And illegal ones.

Apart from the physical closure of sports betting sites and gambling venues from the government, another initiative was undertaken that involved the closure of all domains through which bets were being places electronically,” – said Igli Tola, professor at the Faculty of Economy in Tirana.

In addition, he said that it would be virtually impossible to follow all websites that change their IP address.

“Many of these websites run on foreign IP addresses, so that means that these companies are registered abroad. In fact, in order to not leave any evidence behind that could trace them back to police authorities, they quickly change their IP address so that their whole network doesn’t get discovered,” – added Tola.

Despite all the above-mentioned realizations, all three responsible institutions, the State Police, the Gambling Games Surveillance Authority and AKEP, simultaneously agree that this is a difficult phenomenon to prevent and regulate.

Unpublished delved into the ways used by these illegal betting sites to operate freely in the Albanian market.

All you need is a smartphone, an account or simply a friend that knows of the existence of a base that accepts bets, and you can play the same way as before.

The last three years served to show that this kind of illegal activity needs other much more deeply rooted interventions that don’t settle with simply taking away the physical spaces and slot machines.

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