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The Constitutional Court declared inadmissible the request of the Supreme Council of Lawyers to declare the changes in the Gaming Law unconstitutional and closed the case, the Constitutional Court announced.
The changes, which were introduced in February, prohibited anyone other than the Bulgarian Sports Tote from hosting lottery games.
Thus, the licenses of the existing operators were revoked.
The change also affected the company of businessman Vasil Bozhkov, accused of 18 crimes.
The decision of the Constitutional Court was adopted unanimously by 11 votes.
Constitutional judges are motivated by the fact that “the constitutional legislator has determined the competence of the Ombudsman and the Supreme Council of Lawyers by virtue of Article 150, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Constitution in accordance with their function of protection of the rights of citizens, the same competence should not be interpretively extended to the protection of the interests for which these bodies are not called to defend, otherwise it would lead to equating them with the subjects provided for in article 150, numeral 1 of the Constitution, those who have the opportunity to go to the Constitutional Court in all cases Article 149, paragraph 1. While the right of the Ombudsman and the Supreme Council of Lawyers under paragraphs 3 and 4 of articles 150 is an important corrective for the lack of an individual constitutional complaint and provides citizens with a kind of access to constitutional justice, not it can be extended by way of interpretation beyond its nature and become an opportunity to assert specific private interests. “
The Constitutional Court also points out that games of chance, with the exception of charity raffles, are services that can only be provided by merchants or by the state through a sports tote. He concluded that the provisions challenged before him “have a normative effect entirely with regard to commercial relations in the field of gambling and do not affect the rights and freedoms of citizens.”
Regarding the SJC’s argument that the prohibition of organizing lotteries by individuals infringes on the property rights of citizens, since it makes it difficult to satisfy the winners’ claims, the Constitutional Court affirms that “the question of the payment of the winnings it is not directly relevant to the regulation dispute and, therefore, is irrelevant for the purpose of the present constitutional process “.
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