Ministry of Finance prepares large-scale "repair" of the Gambling Act

The Ministry of Finance is starting a process of fundamental change to the Gambling Act, announced Deputy Minister Lyudmila Petkova. The goal is to remove legislative inaccuracies and ensure more effective control over the industry, which is currently marked by a significant share of the gray sector.

According to Petkova, the current system allows for serious abuses, such as the manipulation of paid winnings through bonuses, which leads to losses of hundreds of millions of euros for the state budget. The new changes will focus on licensing so-called "affiliate operators" (intermediaries who direct players to betting sites) and will introduce strict bans on payment operations to illegal gambling platforms.

The proposal for a sharp increase in fees, suggested by the opposition, was rejected by the Ministry of Finance. The argument is that excessive taxation will force players to move from the legal market to the illegal market, which currently accounts for nearly 40% of the total volume. "Most countries apply a fee of 20% or 25%. Any increase in taxation leads to an increase in the gray sector," Petkova emphasized.

As a reminder, gambling control in Bulgaria is currently transferred to a directorate within the National Revenue Agency (NRA), following the dissolution of the State Gambling Commission. This decision came after a massive scandal involving unpaid fees from private lotteries amounting to over 550 million leva.