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© Tsvetelina Belutova, Capital
The Moldovan prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into the lottery business in the country. In practice, the National Lottery exists a copy of the Bulgarian “National Lottery”, which was liquidated with the adoption of the amendments to the Gaming Law and was owned by Vasil Bozhkov.
The Moldovan National Lottery operates with the NGM Company sportsbook, founded by the Dubai-based company NGM SPC Limited. It was founded by two Bulgarian companies: National Lottery AD and New Games AD, local media write. Both are owned by Vasil Bozhkov, who is currently in hiding in Dubai, and several investigations are underway against him in Bulgaria on various charges.
“A group of people, including foreign companies, has monopolized the gambling business in Moldova, Attorney General Alexander Stoyanoglo told the Infotag news agency. He said they used fraudulent schemes disguised by leaders of the informal Moldovan government.
The Moldovan National Lottery, which was established as a public-private partnership, has become, after the state-run Metalferos, another economic structure controlled by the former Democratic leader, oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, Stoianoglo said.
The “national lottery” was supposed to receive 75% of the revenue and the private partner 25%, but in reality the state received 11.4%. “From November 2018 to May 2019, 325.98 million lei were received from the sale of lottery tickets alone, of which 39.5 million were sent to the lottery and 81.5% to a private partner. The analysis shows that the income from the lottery is not exceeded 51% in slot machines. The state did not receive income of 400 million lei in the period 2017-2019, “he explained.
“The Bulgarian market is very saturated and this is the reason why the National Lottery has had a concession contract for a period of 15 years to administer the national lottery of Moldova.” This was explained in an interview in October 2019 by Dimitar Ganev, the executive director of the lottery (currently in bankruptcy).
“It is a copy of our National Lottery. We are doing it in its entirety. It will start at the end of 2018 and the same things are happening there as in our country,” Ganev said at the time.
Dnevnik asked Dimitar Ganev for questions and comments on the matter, but did not respond to his mobile phone.
In February, the National Assembly passed amendments to the Gaming Law that banned all private lotteries, and this segment of the gambling business was effectively nationalized. Vasil Bozhkov, who is hiding in the United Arab Emirates, has been charged with 18 counts: coercion, extortion, attempted bribery of an official, influence peddling, possession and expropriation of cultural property, rape and murder.
According to the Bulgarian prosecutor’s office, the fees not paid for years by Bozhkov’s companies for games of chance organized by them reach 500 million lev.
