Reel Keeper

What is Reel Keeper?

The GMI, know locally as EEE, is described as a “residual payment to guarantee and legal minimum income for all residents”.

Anyone residing in Cyprus, with income not high enough to support their basic needs, is eligible for the benefit.

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.

About Reel Keeper

“The question for Chris Minns is simple: how much more harm is he prepared to tolerate before he stands up to the gambling lobby?” she asked. 

The reforms, announced at the end of August, introduced a package of what it referred to as “evidence-based” legislation. 

As well as a statewide exclusion register, the package also set out to reduce the number of poker machines from the current figure of 87,000 across 2,100 clubs and hotels. 

About Reel Keeper

The transformation has not eliminated all of Cubeia’s concerns. And inevitably some coders are missing their original role.

“We still have people who loved the coding part – solving problems with code and writing beautiful code. They’re struggling with the change. For some people an important part of their work that they genuinely loved is now gone.”

There are also strategic questions around dependence on AI providers.