The Association of Sports Betting of Macedonia warns that with the draft
amendments to the Law on Games of Chance and Fun Games that are on the
agenda of the 131st Parliamentary Assembly, 7,700 people will be out of work
overnight.
“I urge the MPs to reconsider their position on adopting amendments to the Law on
Games of Chance. Are they ready to delete an entire industry that makes a
significant contribution to the state budget and directly employs 7,700 people who
indirectly support 54,000 jobs in other industries? Are they willing to risk wiping out a
fully regulated industry and creating conditions for illegal betting and the gray
economy? “- warns Vasko Ilijevski, President of ASOM.
The statement of ASOM states that the amendments to the Law are adopted without
proper analysis of the situation, social and financial implications that would cause
them. For their business, sports betting companies pay licenses to the state that
guarantee them operating conditions during the period for which the license was issued. On the basis of the license issued, the gambling organizers make their projections for investment, new employment and development. The conditions imposed by the new law mean the termination of the rights governed by the license. How will the state reimburse and reimburse the funds granted for licenses and investments at each place of payment? Except for betting, this would mean a huge loss for the state, which would also lose 253m euros, which go to the state treasury every year on the basis of taxes. The Association of Sports Betting concludes that this draft law will cause legal uncertainty on the part of the entities that have been granted a license with a precise period of validity in accordance with the Law on Games of Chance. Such a draft law makes a direct intrusion into the already issued licenses.Due to the imposed compliance requirement that was not foreseen at the time of issuance of licenses, by requesting or instituting procedures for material damage suffered by betting companies, direct material damage to the budget in the current orfuture fiscal years may also be caused.ASOM has in the past period met with the Finance Ministry and submitted appropriate requests and opinions on how to regulate the industry, which will not cause harm to either the licensed entities or the budget, and will strengthen standards and manner of the work of the licensed companies. Therefore, we believe that at this moment the Ministry of Finance should come up with its own opinion and opinion on the draft law. The proposals that we have submitted and the views discussed by the Ministry of Finance are comparative to the regulation in the EU member states and they are aimed at the fact that no European country considers the possibility of bans, but quality regulation of games of chance”, reads the statement
