Analysis of Bulgaria’s Parliamentary battle against gambling

The Bulgarian Parliament has voted against proposed revisions to the Gambling Act, aimed at curbing the pervasive influence of gambling advertisements. The amendments, proposed by Kostadin Kostadinov of the Vazrazhdane party, were defeated with a vote of 67-29, despite support from BSP for Bulgaria and populist party “There Is Such a People” (?Има такъв народ, ИТН). The proposed changes sought to address societal harms linked to gambling, including stricter advertising regulations and an empowered register for individuals experiencing gambling addiction.

However, dissenting voices from GERB-UDF cautioned against the potentially adverse effects on municipal sporting institutions, arguing that such measures would merely scratch the surface of addiction’s root causes.

Heat of the debate

Earlier this week, some of Bulgaria’s brightest minds engaged in the tireless debates on the topic of gambling in Sofia’s Parliamentary House.

It started at the end of last year when Kostadin Kostadinov, and his nationalist party, Revival (Bulgarian: ‘Vazrazhdane’), drafted a proposal to amend certain legislations in the country’s current Gambling Law. His aim was to create a better aligned regulatory framework. One significant point of interest was the almost complete overhaul of advertising rules. The amendments were proposed because the political party Vazrazhdane believes that this is necessary to counter the ‘onslaught’ of gambling adverts that pervade TV, radio, and other electronic media, reaching minors and vulnerable people – a clear contradiction to current regulations.

Four months after Vazrazhdane proposed the draft, Kostadinov, speaking from the Parliamentary tribune on 29 March, criticized his colleagues for their lack of interest in the draft and the failure of the relevant committees to consider it. He announced [...] Read more