site.btaUPDATED GERB-UDF, Movement for Rights and Freedoms Propose Ban on Gambling Ads in Media

MPs of GERB-UDF and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) have tabled in Parliament draft revisions to the Gambling Act. The most important part of this bill is to limit the advertising of gambling by banning gambling ads in all types of media, Yordan Tsonev MP of MRF told a joint news briefing of the bill's sponsors here on Wednesday.

Tsonev specified that only ads on billboards will be allowed but away from schools, on sports equipment for adults, and in sports halls. The bill also envisages limiting gambling halls to settlements with over 5,000 residents.

Temenouzhka Petkova MP of GERB-UDF said that the draft amendments are aimed at protecting the public interest.

Earlier in April, GERB and MRF voted against amendments to the Gambling Act aimed against the advertisement of gambling, which were proposed by Kostadin Kostadinov of Vazrazhdane. The revisions were backed by Vazrazhdane, BSP for Bulgaria and There Is Such a People but it was not enough to push them through. The reasoning to the bill said that it sought to minimize the harm in society caused by gambling by curbing advertising and improving controls, and strengthening the deterring function of the register of persons with gambling addiction. The revisions also proposed a fine for media operators violating the restrictions on advertising gambling. 

Vazrazhdane argued that gambling addiction is a disease which affects one in three families in Bulgaria.

During the debate, GERB's Lyuben Dilov MP argued that "the dramatic changes proposed in the Vazrazhdane bill" would deal a severe blow on municipal sporting institutions. He also said that a ban on advertising gambling would not solve the problem with the addiction. "Human nature should not be touched and changed," he added.