Tomorrow, at an extraordinary session, the Assembly will decide on amendments to the Law on Games of Chance, which were proposed by the opposition with the aim of introducing order in this area and increasing state revenues.
The changes refer to lottery games for two main reasons, because the state must publish a new advertisement for the award of a concession by the end of the year, and now this is not specified by law, and because the state is now introducing online supervision for other organizers of games of chance, and according to the current law, they are from and state control exempt lottery games. Lottery games are the only games of chance for which there is no fixed concession fee. With this proposal, it is estimated at the amount of at least 100.000 euros per year, and the concession is awarded to the bidder who offers more in the ad.
All these privileges to the detriment of the state are held by the Lottery of Montenegro, whose owner is businessman Sava Džigi Grbović.
However, considering the practice of the new speaker of the parliament, Darko Pajović, that he puts to a vote whether the proposal will even enter the agenda, it is possible that the members of the DPS and their partners will not allow this proposal to even be discussed. In this way, in recent days, they have prevented the discussion of several proposals of the opposition.
The Constitution states that an extraordinary session is convened at the request of at least a third of the deputies, and in the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly that the applicant for an extraordinary session determines the date and agenda of the session.
MP Miloš Konatar, who initiated these changes to the law with Dritan Abazović with the support of all his colleagues from the opposition, said that their proposal represents an attempt to introduce more order and protect state interests in this area.
"Unfortunately, at this moment, the state loses millions of euros annually due to the existing legal regulations and the obvious negligence to protect the public interest. We proposed to the members of the Parliament of Montenegro a way for money from lottery games to go to the state coffers, and not to private pockets. "Tomorrow, at the session, we will see who in the parliament protects the state and who protects the tycoons," Konatar said.
He stated that their proposal is not politicking and demagoguery, but that it is very seriously and thoroughly prepared.
"The proposal to amend the law is not directed against anyone, it is directed for the good of Montenegro and its citizens," Konatar said.
At the session of September 12, the Parliamentary Committee for Legislation assessed with four votes in favor and three abstentions that the proposal to amend the Law on Games of Chance is in accordance with the Constitution and the law and forwarded it to the Parliament.
If the advertisement for lottery games were to be published according to the current law, the state would lose about one million euros annually. The Administration for Games of Chance has previously determined that due to the privilege from the current Law that the Lottery does not pay a fixed fee for the sports book - "toto", registered as a lottery, the state loses 625 thousand euros annually.
In addition, it loses an average of 320 per year because the Lottery determines how much its variable concession will be and calculates the lowest base.
The proposed changes envisage the deletion of the "toto" game from the list of lottery games. "Toto" is a classic sportsbook in its form, for which you should pay 500 euros per month per payment point. However, in 2009, the Ministry of Finance allowed the Lottery to translate its betting shop as a lottery game without a concession.
It is also proposed to oblige the organizers of lottery games to be connected to online supervision, to introduce attestations and certificates for devices for extracting winnings from the lotto and raffle because no one controls them now.
Secret consultations in the Lottery
After the opposition announced about 20 days ago the submission of amendments to this law, the owner of the Lottery, Sava Grbović, requested an urgent meeting with the new leadership of the Administration for Games of Chance.
According to "Vijesti" information, representatives of the Administration went to a meeting that took place in the offices of the Lottery.
A few days after that meeting, the Administration for Games of Chance proposed to the Ministry of Finance to immediately announce an advertisement for lottery games for a period of up to 10 years.
The representatives of the Ministry rejected that proposal with the explanation that there is no public interest in immediately publishing an advertisement when there is a procedure for amending the law that specifies this area and gives the state opportunities for greater control and better revenues.
If the advertisement were to be announced now and the concession granted under the current law, only the Lottery would meet the conditions, which would retain the monopoly and the state would lose up to a million euros a year in revenue.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
