Rough lobbying caused the post of Chairman of the State Commission on Gambling, Kaloyan Krastev. In November last year, he attempted to change still unfunctioning Gambling Act to relieve the licensing of two global operators. The Kamikaze of Dyankov (the ex-FinMin) as they called him them from the industry, however, failed to cause havoc. Parliament stopped the amendment Krastev- Djankov (in the form of a draft bill coming from the Council of Ministers), but now Kalin Hristov has come back to controlling a probably future explosion. Krastev was dismissed by the Minister of Finance on April 22.
In exercising his powers under Art. 18 of the Gambling Act, Minister Hristob appointed appoint Ivan Enicherov Chairman of the State Commission on Gambling. So far Enicherov has been the Head of the Legal Department and in the period from 2004 to 2011 was a member of the Gambling Commission. The team of Minister Kalin Hristov did not provide reasons for the move, it was justified only by an Article of the Law on Gambling, which empowers the Minister of Finance to decide this.
42-year-old Krastev was appointed chairman of the Gambling Commission in February 2010, after his predecessor Dimitar Terziev resigned. Krastev is known to have been was a classmate of former Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov in the Lovech High School.
The rough lobbying was for changes to section 7 of the Act. The provision there creates additional requirements for companies seeking licenses for Bulgaria as well as to partners or shareholders who are resident outside the EU and Switzerland. According to the law, to organize gambling in the country, companies from outside the EU or European Economic Area should have in Bulgaria a 4 – or 5-star hotel or invest at least $ 10 million and open 500 jobs. Such a restriction existed in the repealed Act of 1999. It was applicable only to companies registered in Bulgaria who want licenses for organizing gambling games. That means that back than outside the scope of its provision remained companies registered in other Memer States.
This requirement prevents the introduced by previous changes in the Gambling Act compulsory licensing of online gambling in the country, point out the grounds of the Ministry of Finance. Indeed, the law seeks foreign gaming site on the internet to obtain a license and pay taxes in Bulgaria.
With the extension of the license to organize gambling in the new law providing for the possibility of organizing these games from a distance,the limitation under Article 7 constitutes an insurmountable obstacle to the issuance of such licenses. This was the motivation of the Council of Ministers, whose lobbyist amendment was presented to parliament.
nbsp;
Bulgarian organizers of games of chance, however, jumped against the elimination of requirements specific to their colleagues from outside the EU. Locals prefer sites from outside the EU to have no affinity to register in Bulgaria and Art. 7 creates such a barrier.
Eventually it came to a preliminary interest of a large Maltese company with Bulgarian participation, which prefers to remain anonymous as well as the global leader in e-gaming – Betfair.
Intentionally or not, the biggest betting exchange in the world, Betfair stopped its version in Bulgarian on 4 December last year. In common message, the company announced that the measure is due to an overall decrease in the number of serviced languages, Bulgarian customers can continue to use the exchange in another language. Betfair adds that is has ceased to attract new customers from Bulgaria and withdraws from marketing any new services in our market.
At first glance, the decision of Betfair has no connection with the entry into force last summer of the new Gambling Act, but the subsequent complete closure in Bulgaria is not excluded to be linked to that, as the company has already withdrawn from Germany and Greece because of unacceptable for it local laws regarding online gambling.
The BANKER
