Tipos lottery officials face charges

Slovakian national lottery Tipos was involved in a major investigation and two officials have just become the first to face charges over it.

Slovakia.- Slovakian national lottery company Tipos and its corruption scandal has its first two people facing charges. The investigator of the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) has accused two top officials over said case.

The two accused are head of Tipos Ján Barczi and head of the company’s IT department Miloš Prelec. The authorities detained them last week during a raid in Tipos. However, they will not be prosecuted in custody.

Gambling legislation in Slovakia

The Slovak National Council vote this week to override the decision made by President Andrej Kiska on December 21, 2018, to veto the country’s new Gambling Act, which had been approved by the parliament on December 4.

The bill was designed to open the online gambling market to international operators that wish to apply for local licences, and it was established that applications would start being accepted on March 1, 2019. Despite the approval from parliament, the situation took a wrong turn as the President decided to veto the bill on December 21, as he criticised the legislative piece and urged different requirements.

While several changes are introduced with this measure for the online sector, the most important one is the ending of online gambling monopoly of state-owned national lottery Tipos. The market will now be open to private domestic firms and online operators based in other European Union jurisdictions to apply for licences to operate in Slovakia.