Bulgaria Hunts Down Illegal Gambling Operators

Those seeking to enter casino business in Bulgaria need to be careful. The Bulgarian gambling laws tolerate licensed casinos, but crack down harshly on those looking to operate without state permission.

One operator of online casinos in Bulgaria thought of an easy way to enter the local market under a license of a foreign operator. This, however, didn’t please the local law enforcement authorities, which led to a police sting operation, resulting in a shutdown of the premises and an arrest of the organizer.

The action has been proudly announced by the Ministry of Interior, in hopes of proving to the European Union officials that the country is finally cracking down on widely spread corruption, matching in scale that of Romania.

The other get-rich-quick scheme involved what seemed to be an operator of mobile casino games in Bulgaria. The company provided Question and Answer contests to the public via text messages with real money prizes.

As much as 17.5 million BGN (over $10 million) was generated in the contest. It is estimated that Bulgarians sent nearly 15 million text messages to participate. Given that the population of Bulgaria is 7.5 million, that accounts for 2 messages per person. As reported by Bulgarian gambling news, the owner was charged for operating without a license and evading taxes.

The text message gaming is quite popular in many European nations where tens of millions of players spend hundreds of millions of dollars hoping to win a prize in the form of money or an attractive car.