Ep 260: Bulgaria imposes gambling law amendments

We’re heading to the Balkans in today’s episode of iGaming Daily, supported by Optimove, with Bulgaria witnessing proposals to tighten its gambling regulations in the past month. 

In April, a new bill to amend the country’s Gambling Act was proposed by Bulgaria’s biggest political party GERB, alongside the Movement for Rights and Freedoms party. 

The amendments, if approved by the National Assembly, will see a ban on gambling advertisements throughout TV, radio, print and online, as well as all kinds of promotional places on public buildings. 

And this will be the topic on today’s episode of iGaming Daily, James Ross is joined by Viktor Kayed, Senior Journalist at SBC News and a native Bulgarian!

To read more on the topic of today's discussion, click on the following links:

- https://sbcnews.co.uk/featurednews/2024/04/30/bulgaria-proposes-ad-ban-social-tax-and-civic-limits-to-gambling-overhaul/
- https://sbcnews.co.uk/featurednews/2024/04/25/bulgaria-gambling-ad-ban/
- https://sbcnews.co.uk/marketing/2024/04/04/bulgaria-vote-gambling-change/

Host: James Ross
Guest: Viktor Kayed
Producer: Anaya McDonald
Editor: James Ross

Remember to check out our partners Optimove at https://hubs.la/Q02gLC5L0 or go to optimove.com/sbc to get your first month free when buying the industry's leading customer-loyalty service.

Creators & Guests

Host

James Ross

Multimedia Editor at SBC Media

What is iGaming Daily?

A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.

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I have some gases in me that I cannot control. It's not a burp. The one that you just heard, it's not a burp. It's just, I guess... Are you recording? I guess it's just the peristaltic, the... How do you say it in biology terms? The thing, the road that your... Intestines? Intestines.

My intestines are all messed up. That's kind of a perfect segue into this podcast. Sponsored by Optimal. So just like Victor's gassy set in south, we're going to be heading to the Balkans in today's episode of iGaming Daily with Bulgaria witnessing the proposals to tighten its gambling regulations in the past month.

In April, a new bill to amend the country's gambling act was proposed by Bulgaria's biggest political party, GERB? I believe I'm right saying that? G -A -R -B, you can say that. G -A -R -B, we'll say G -A -R -B, okay. Along with the movement for rights and freedom party, the amendments, if approved by the National Assembly, will see a ban on gambling advertisements throughout TV, radio, print and online, as well as all kinds of promotional places on public buildings. And this will be the topic of today's episode of Our Gaming Daily, where...

You've already heard his voice. I'm joined by Victor Kaya, the senior journalist at SBC News and a native Bulgarian. Hello, Victor. That's right. Both of those are factual statements. Hello, James. Good to be here. it's good to have you here. Do you know what? Before we actually jump into this, before I start the podcast, I got told by someone in the office that you are an expert.

on something Bulgarian, we're going to keep it Bulgarian related. And it probably explains your intestines. Bulgarian cheese. Yeah, I'm kind of a Bulgarian cheese connoisseur. Yeah, you're right. I actually get everyone in this office building, not everyone, but a lot of people addicted to it because as whenever I go home and I come back, I like to bring food with me.

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Obviously they don't have it in the UK and yes, a lot of people not only me like it. So yeah, I'm kind of the How do you say it? I'm kind of the cheese Bulgarian connoisseur Yeah, you can say that the big cheese the big cheese big cheese mafia the big cheese Bulgarian mafia Yeah I'm kind of a jealous actually you just said you brought some of this cheese back for people in the office and I've not experienced this Bulgarian cheese

you wanted it? Okay. I know, probably not with your intestines though. What was the Boko Harin cheese, which is your favourite? Well there's two types, one of them is white cheese, the other one is yellow cheese, both are made from cow's milk, the ones that I like you can also make it from goat's cheese as well. But they are both very salty, so the first time I brought some to a friend of mine in the UK who is...

British, I didn't expect them to like it because of the saltiness but it turns out it's a good taste even for people abroad. So my personal favorite I guess would be the yellow cheese because it's more mellow and you can have it with everything especially on pizza. It's really nice on pizza. It looks like cheddar cheese but it tastes completely different, much much better.

You know, I could probably talk more cheese. I could probably talk, should we just do a food podcast? Yeah. Yeah. If we can find a sponsor for it. I don't think our sponsor OptiMove. In fact, our sponsor OptiMove might be up for it. Cheese podcast. Maybe they have some bug here and so on. You know what the number one I game and CRM I game and solution on the market, they might be the number one cheese solution on the market. Yeah. The number one cheese producer. Who knows?

We would never know unless we ask so whoever is listening from OptiMove give us a shout. And whoever else is listening to the podcast isn't from OptiMove, OptiMove are actually offering a free month for listeners of the iGame and Daily Podcast. If you go to www .optimove .com forward slash SBC you will be able to sign up for that first month. I'll leave all the links in the description below. Just a disclaimer, cheese might or might not be included.

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Yeah, look, it may or may not. I think it's more the latter. Look, we're talking Bulgaria. By my introduction, it may seem like I'm the expert in Bulgaria here, but I'm not. Everything has come from Victor, who's been covering the story pretty much since it broke and every single update on SBC News. So I gave a little bit of an update. Vic, you're the expert. I'll play Modereo.

Can you just give us an overview of what's actually been happening in Bulgaria? So it specifically refers to the ban on gambling advertisement and changes to the country's gambling act. Specifically gambling ad ban, the gambling ad app, the gambling ban ad has been going, has been.

long time, almost six years now. And it came as a surprise that politicians were able to come together just in a few days and unanimously vote for it. 196 people voted for and zero against, which is quite an achievement for politicians in Bulgaria. They're usually pretty divided on every other topic. But...

It involves changes to the gambling act, which are about to be enforced very, very soon. What's the current status are we in with it now? Well, it passed, I think it was last week that people started talking about it. It passed first reading, the draft itself passed first reading, I think.

One or two weeks ago, I'm not sure I'm gonna lie to you, because the information is getting mixed up together. After passing first read, then it went to a sister second reading, which it also passed. Then last week it was voted in by the country's national assembly. Like I said, unanimously 196 votes for it. And yeah, and naturally after a law has been...

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voted by the National Assembly. It's expected for it to pass a final reading by the president and then get published into the country's Gazette. It didn't happen last week because there were some holidays in Bulgaria, the Easter holidays specifically, so people were away from work. But breaking news from today, I can say that the president has signed the document. It has been published in the official Gazette. So.

the changes are expected to come into force this Friday. So just three days from now. Okay. That's the breaking news. That's the breaking news. Yeah. Probably should have had led with that one, shouldn't we? Well, you know, just keep the, keep the dessert for the, for the final part. Yeah. We gave them a cheese board first. But yeah. Although the president wasn't, we weren't sure if he would vote for it or against because in an interview,

towards the end of last week, he said that he might veto it. So, you know, it's an unexpected development, but here we are, the changes are gonna come into force this Friday, which is again, a very, very quick procedure. It gives operators almost no time to react to the changes. Now, okay, then I'm actually glad you've re -mentioned those, Rosc, because you mentioned it earlier in one of your answers.

Why, why has it been rushed through? Well, there are a few speculations going on around, and I'm not big of a conspiracy theorist, but the two main ones are, well, the first one is kind of a general criticism. Elections are coming up in June, so they think it's like a strategic pre -elections move from the parties, which is not far away.

You know, it's not far. It doesn't sound too far away from reality The second reason though is more interesting It involves The cutting of funding to media companies so Media companies the three biggest media companies in Bulgaria there are a lot but the three biggest receive a substantial amount of money from gambling advertisement

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So for example, I'm gonna read you out the numbers from last year Let me just find them. Okay, there they are. So for 2023 the Bulgarian national television, which is the national broadcaster received around 1 .9 million pounds from gambling advertisements, which is not a lot, but it mostly comes from the Bulgarian

Tote Board, which again is Bulgarian owned, so they have kind of a symbiotic relationship between them. But this is the national broadcaster. The other two are private companies, and listen to this for 2023. One broadcaster called BTV received 18 million pounds for the year from Gabling Advertisements, and the third one called Nova Television, which has been the most vocal.

about the changes to regulation received 32 .5 million pounds from gambling advertisement. So as you can see quite a substantial amount. And the conspiracy I guess is that certain politicians, this is again political talk, but the conspiracy is that certain politicians are trying to devalue the...

the media companies so that certain people can buy them for less, for less the market value that they currently are and then, you know. I mean, just for the podcast factually, like that isn't the case. Yeah, yeah, just that's the rumour mill. That's the theories that's been going around the two main theories. We're not the experts, we're not investigative journalists who knows what happens behind the scenes, but.

It is a fact that cutting gambling, cutting funds from gambling advertisements to these companies will significantly reduce their annual income. And it also, it doesn't help that this happens not even at the end of the financial quarter. We just started this financial quarter. So they have to be...

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You know, both the media organizations and the operators have to be very careful how they proceed onwards. And you already mentioned Nova TV that you're saying they were very vocal. Yeah. In these, what were proposals, but now signed off. What did they say? Because they issued a statement.

They issued a statement saying that when funds are cut from the media's budget, this threatens the production value of their broadcasting capabilities. It puts them in a situation where they might provide content of lower quality. It also affects their...

their capability to compete in the international market for broadcasting rights, for example, for the upcoming UEFA Europa League. They secure the rights for that, but because they had an extra influx of money after this is gone.

They say that they wouldn't have this opportunity again and the content that they show viewers will be severely threatened. I'm going to ask you one more thing just before we go to a quick ad break. So this gambling ban, blanket ban, I've already explained it, what is over, you know, TV, radio, online and print. There's similar restrictions across Europe, you know, with the likes of Spain, Italy.

you know, the strict regulations, so I say, in Europe, like Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. How does this differ or show similarities between them? Is it quite similar to what's happening in those aforementioned countries or is it slightly different? Specifically for, specifically the ban on TV adverts, it's quite different because for example, in Italy and in Germany,

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There is such a ban, but there were companies who were given a lengthy tradition period to adapt to the changes. For example, in Italy, I think it was 18 months. In Germany, I think it was six months. Here in Bulgaria, it just happens. From the time of the initial draft to today when it was signed into law, it's literally been like less than a month.

And the law is gonna start being enforced this Friday. So you can see there is quite a huge difference between the time given to companies and to companies in those countries, in the other European countries and the situation how it is in Bulgaria. Okay, cool. So our producer, Rene, has just come to the door with a nice cheese spread. So me and Vic, we're gonna enjoy that.

Well listeners, you get a quick ad break. So we'll be right back. And we're back. How was your cheese spread Vic? It was all right. It was on Bulgarian dough. So I enjoy what I have. Yeah. It's a nice baby bells, some derelict triangles. Yeah. Baby bells are nice. I'm a big fan of baby bells. They're my favorite. Cool. Like in the second half, we're going to, we're going to take a slight turn and just look at a few other things that were in this proposal.

away from the gambling ban. And I kind of want to look at the social responsibility payment and correct me if I'm wrong here, Vic. I don't think I'm wrong because I took this from your article. This is where each operator must make an annual payment to the treasury. What's been the amendments there? Well, every operator is obliged to give the treasury an amount of their profits as a social responsibility tax.

the latest amendments that are in the newest law say that £43 .7 thousand pounds need to be given from providers of online gambling. So there is a different tax amount and the tax amount depends on what kind of a gambling provider you are. So the £43 .7 thousand pounds is for providers of online gambling.

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The next one is 10 .9 thousand pounds for land -based casinos and the smallest amount is 4 .4 thousand pounds for all other gambling providers. And these funds will go straight to the Ministry of Health Care to treat gambling harm and people who experience it. And there's also been a tightening on self -exclusion duties.

Yeah, the self -exclusion registry, as it is, it exists by itself, but it acts as any other self -exclusion registry across Europe. People, if they want, they can sign up for it and they're gonna receive restricted access from gambling. This registry,

the amendments envision that it will be integrated into the social care registry which serves as a list of people who are dependent from the government currently in Bulgaria. They receive social care, you know, they're unemployed, they don't have a secure influx of monthly cash inflows, so they're gonna combine both.

And anyone who is under the social care list will be automatically enlisted into the self -exclusion registry. But of course this involves collaborative work between the Ministry of Finance, which is currently overseeing the gambling sector and the Ministry of Health, which is overseeing obviously the social care list.

It's gonna take time for them to be integrated, both lists, but it's coming. It's in the new regulations. And also just for the operators who listen to the podcast as well, the proposals, which again, I'll emphasize, are now set in stone, are set to be implemented on Friday. They are long from Friday. As part of the tightening of the self -exclusion duties, operators will be fined, what was the currency in Bulgaria? LIV, it's called LIV.

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So you can say Bulgarian lives. Okay. So the operators will be fined 5 ,000 Bulgarian lives. So the first violation, 20 ,000 Bulgarian lives for the second violation and license cancellation if they reach a third violation. Correct. Yes, that's correct. And just for the reference, one, one pound is around 2 .3 Bulgarian lives. Okay. So yeah, you can, you can.

decide for yourself how much this is and the license and cancellation is also a new rule. It wasn't described in the law before, so it's a very much legal danger for operators currently in the country. So I was going to round the podcast off with what's the next steps and what we can expect now. But again, this has now been approved.

It's going to be brought in on Friday. Yes, it's going to be in force on Friday. Yeah. But I expect, I expect there'll be quite a few vocal oppositions from this. Now it's been approved, which Vic, you'll cover on SBC news when it does happen. But just for listeners out there, we're now short on time at the end of the podcast.

Which is sad because there are so many other huge amendments to mention. Just I'm going to do one and lead you. Go on, round us off with the big ones. There is also a rule that prohibits land -based casinos and all types of gambling in populated areas with under 10 ,000 inhabitants, which is quite huge. All casinos in such a small town should close within the next three years.

And it's kind of similar to what we saw back in Romania, not sure, a few months back where the law was the same, just the number was different. In Romania it was forbidden in towns under 15 ,000 and in Bulgaria now it's even less than that, even 10 ,000. Like I mentioned at the start, Vic's been covering this since the news initially broke or the proposal was initially made and he's done...

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quite a few articles on SBC news, which I'll leave in the description below. Vic will also be covering this as updates keep happening. So keep an eye out on SBC news, keep an ear out on iGaming Daily because I'll no doubt have Vic back for an update on this in the not so distant future. But apart from that, thank you for listening to iGaming Daily. Vic, let's go get some food. Let's go, I'm up for it then, guys.

Thank you for listening and keep an eye out for exciting news from Eastern Europe coming up soon.