{"id":3077,"date":"2020-02-03T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T10:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=3077"},"modified":"2026-04-24T08:17:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:17:31","slug":"bulgaria-gambling-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/bulgaria-gambling-charges","title":{"rendered":"Bulgarian commission faces more charges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The State Commission on Gambling from Bulgaria is facing more charges after authorities found out about multiple bribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bulgaria.- The public prosecution from Bulgaria has discovered that the State Commission on Gambling has received bribe offers from a businessman. Former Chairman of the Commission Ognemir Mitev has been detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As reported by\u00a0Bulgarian National Television<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(BNT), businessman Vasil Bozhkov offered a bribe of \u20ac5k a day to an official at the state regulator. The prosecutor\u2019s office claims that Mitev was part of the businessman\u2019s group and that he didn\u2019t control the revenue from Bozhkov\u2019s lotteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bozkhov has been accused of being active in a group involved in blackmail, tax crimes, money laundering and coercion, among other things, since the beginning of 2014. The authorities believe that Mitev didn\u2019t properly check Bozkhov\u2019s gambling business and how the fees were calculated. The lotteries allegedly ended up paying 20% to the commission and not the 15% of all bets that the law requires them to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siika Mileva, Spokesperson of the Chief Prosecutor, said: \u201cBozhkov offered a gift of \u20ac5k a day to an official of the Gambling Commission, who in turn would submit to the commission proposals for revocation of licences of competing companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent moves<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Last week, the head of the State Commission along with the head of control of the State Commission on Gambling and more than 10 officials have been interrogated<\/em><\/strong><\/a> by officials of the Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office and Ministry of Interior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the second time that the officials from Bulgaria have been taken for questioning in two weeks. They also seized documents regarding how lottery fees are calculated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BNT also reported that the head of control at the State Commission on Gambling said that he would assist the prosecution on this case and that he was not worried about being questioned multiple times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The State Commission on Gambling from Bulgaria is facing more charges after authorities found out about multiple bribes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Bulgaria's State Commission on Gambling faces corruption charges, with former Chairman Ognemir Mitev detained amidst allegations of receiving daily bribes from businessman Vasil Bozhkov. The investigation centers on improper regulatory oversight of lottery operations, including alleged underpayment of statutory fees and anti-competitive practices. This development highlights significant governance and compliance failures within the national iGaming regulatory body.","focusai_entities":"State Commission on Gambling, Ognemir Mitev, Vasil Bozhkov, Public prosecution from Bulgaria, Bulgarian National Television, Siika Mileva, Special Prosecutor\u2019s Office, Ministry of Interior","focusai_location":"Bulgaria","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Bulgarian Licensing?","query":"What are the immediate and long-term implications of this corruption scandal for the integrity and stability of the iGaming licensing framework in Bulgaria, particularly for existing and prospective operators?"},{"label":"Regulatory Reform Outlook?","query":"Given the alleged systemic corruption, what specific governance reforms or international oversight mechanisms might be implemented to restore confidence in Bulgaria's gambling regulatory body?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16331,439],"tags":[229],"class_list":["post-3077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elsewhere-news","category-legal-news","tag-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3077"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777009216,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3077\/revisions\/777009216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}