Media: Romanian prosecutors investigate public lottery for fraud

The Romanian prosecutors have blocked the Romanian Lottery’s accounts as they launched a fraud investigation on the company. The prosecutors have calculated a preliminary damage of about EUR 100 million to the state budget because the Lottery made money from electronic slot machines that it operated without a license. The investigators also want to recover the EUR 130 million in illegal revenues the company made from these activities starting 2009, according to investigative journalism website RiseProject.ro. According to the legislation on gambling, which changed in 2009, the Romanian Lottery should have had each slot machine it operates authorized every year and pay a RON 8,000 (circa EUR 1,800) tax per machine. The Lottery apparently closed a secret contract, in 2003, with a company called Lotrom, from which it purchased 6,263 slot machines. Two other companies, Intracom and Intralot, financed the deal in exchange for the Lottery’s revenues from operating the slot machines. The three firms are controlled by Greek businessman Kokkalis Sokratis, according to Rise Project. The Lottery authorized the slot machines for video-lottery services, for which a different taxation applies. This caused the EUR 100 million damage to the state, the prosecutors said. The Romanian Lottery is the market leader for slot machines in Romania, as it has 1,109 units where these games are available. More than 100 of these units are in Bucharest. The company had revenues of EUR 191 million and a gross profit of some EUR 28 million, in 2014. Slot machines banned in Romania except from casinos, Lottery agencies editor@romania-insider.com