Bulgaria’s Gambling Commission is meeting to discuss adding up to 27 new websites to its blacklist, its president has revealed, following last week’s court order for ISPs to block 22 belonging to the likes of Bet365, 888 and Betfair.
“The agenda of the Committee meeting on Monday [24 June] is a proposal to supplement the list with 27 new websites”, Ivan Enicherov of the State Gambling Commission confirmed to Capital Daily yesterday.
Enicherov also revealed the Commission continued to receive letters of intent to apply for licences, despite the government proposing an unworkable tax regime of 15% of turnover and regulations for the issue of licences not yet being in place.
“For example, at the end of the working day on Friday, the Commission received a letter of intent from one of the largest web poker organisers. It informs us [of] the paperwork required for submission of an application for a Bulgarian licence.”
The newspaper also challenged Enicherov over the apparent conflict between the Bulgarian government’s stated aim of collecting tax from the BGN700m (£305m) of annual or BGN80,000 (£35,000) of daily internet bets it estimated to be taking place in Bulgaria, and its pursuit of an “unworkable” turnover levy of 15% despite being clearly told this would deter licence applications. “Parliament has always prevailed of the opinion that gambling should be taxed at a higher rate”, responded Enicherov.
He also pointed out that tax lay outside the Gambling Act and his dept’s remit and that given he was in the position temporarily, it would be “extremely difficult” to prepare and present a proposal for amending this to parliament. Enicherov also cited his “stressed” and “low capacity” administration’s “extreme workload” and the difficulty of substanting such a proposal to parliament.
“My position is that there should be two taxes on the same activity because it’s available on the internet or on the ground. [But] In terms of tax, it is better to respect the principle of proportionality and tax land-based and taxed online gambling the same in order to prevent unfair competition between areas of the business as a whole.”
The paper also queried the success of a scenario which now involved a small number of operators in a dominant position which it claimed paid no tax [presumably on online operations]: “This is the current state of affairs. As you know, [Bulgarian Sport Totaliser] has traditions rather than [needing to] improve performance. That the market has operators other than the Totaliser shows that there is a market for this business. Whoever wants can operate.”
The same newspaper last week accused the first “”limited” blacklist of “accidentally” containing the main competitors to local incumbent vBulletin, which holds the other two licences for sports betting in Bulgaria, offered online via Eurobet.bg and Eurofootball.bg, both linked to controversial casino billionaire Vasil Bozhkov. The paper also countered that not being able to currently apply for licences put companies in a “Catch-22″ situation, and that the case set a dangerous precedent for the filtering and monitoring of the internet, which could lead to future abuses of state power.
“[I]t appears that the first concrete step in the financial sphere of government caresses the shoulder of a very narrow range of interests”, said the editorial, calling for the equal treatment of all market players, a mechanism to regulate the sector and “adequate tax treatment”.
Article written by Stephen Carter
