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Albanian President Ilir Meta has put his signature in the new gambling bill in the country to make it part of the law. The new law, titled Law No. 75/2018 On Several Amendments and Changes to Law No.155/2015 On Gambling in the Republic of Albania, aims to crack down on all forms of gambling.

The new law will come into force on 1 January 2019.

The proposals of the new legislation were proposed by Prime Minister Edi Rama and were unanimously approved in the Parliament during voting, with opposition members boycotting voting process.

The amended law bans all casinos and other physical gambling facilities from operating in residential areas. Casino gambling will only be allowed at five-star hotels and tourist areas around the country. Slot machine halls and other venues providing gambling services will have to relocate to city outskirts or close in order to comply with the recently approved changes.

Prime Minister Rama did not spare online gambling, as well, in his effort to curb the proliferation of gaming and betting activities in his country. Under the amended law, all betting and casino operations provided remotely will have to shut down.

Source: CasinoNewsDaily

Source: Latest News on European Gaming Media Network

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Albania is planning to introduce new betting regulation, which includes some radical proposals. First, sports betting will be banned in residential areas. Electronic casinos will also be relocated. The most important proposal is that there could be a state-monopoly on sports betting so that the state can effectively control gambling in the country.

“We are considering the possibility of treating sports betting and betting on races as a state monopoly and allow their operation by specially set up state structures,” a government report says.

Until now, gambling is privately run and generates over €130 million in income yearly, employing around 7,000 people. However, it could soon be partially turned into a state-run activity as sports betting would be controlled by the government, as it happens in many other European Union countries.

According to Prime Minister Edi Rama, upcoming changes – to be enforced as of January 2019 – will limit gambling and generate an extra €700 million in household consumption. However, there’s some opposition from the Democratic Party, which voiced its concern over gambling, and the government, allegedly being linked with organised crime, accusations that have been quickly dismissed by the majority.

Source: FocusGN

Source: Latest News on European Gaming Media Network

National Revenue Agency (NRA) of Bulgaria has reported that 49 gamblers in the country became millionaires in 2017 alone. The agency has also stated that the total winnings from gambling received Bulgarian gamblers in 2017 amounted to BGN 627 million.

The report also indicates that as many as 13,447 Bulgarian gamblers have won more than 5,000 BGN last year.

The biggest winning was 9,815,422 BGN, and the game is not specified. The second biggest winning amounted to BGN 7.9 million, the third place was 5.7 million BGN. The other TOP 10 winners of the ranking have won from 4 to 5 million levs, the NRA reports. A total of 49 Bulgarians have become millionaires due to gambling last year with their winnings over 1 mln BGN.

80 Bulgarians have won between BGN 500,000 and BGN 1 million. Most gamblers, 12,395 people were lucky to receive winnings between BGN 5,000 and BGN 100,000.

The NRA statistics is not segmented by type of gambling because such information was not collected. However, it is clear from the tax agency data that the biggest winning was paid by companies which are the lottery operators.

The National Lottery has paid more than 5,000 levs to 6,209 people, according to official data from the NRA. Eurobet has provided such prizes to 259 people, New Games reported about 672 winners.

Since the lottery operators are required by law to pay out at least 50 per cent of the value of the bets, it can be concluded that turnover of lotteries is about BGN 1 billion in Bulgaria.

Source: E-PLAY Online

Source: Latest News on European Gaming Media Network