Narek Karapetyan accuses RA NA Speaker of patronizing gambling  industry

ArmInfo. Narek Karapetyan, a member of the political council of Samvel Karapetyan's "Strong Armenia" party, accused the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament of  patronizing the gambling industry in the country.

"While we are pondering how to finally overcome poverty: Did you know  that the majority of casino players in the world are Armenian  citizens? Last year, Armenian citizens lost $20 million in online  casinos," Karapetyan wrote on his Facebook page.

He also asked, "Which politician is sponsoring this in Armenia?" "Who  will go down in history alone with the shameful act of 'placing' his  country in a casino? The one who, by some strange coincidence, became  the Speaker of the National Assembly. We want change to usher in  people like you, who enrich themselves by destroying the families of  others and dragging people into poverty," wrote Karapetyan.

Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, Alen Simonyan, responded to  Karapetyan's post, asking him to name the speaker of parliament he  was referring to. "I give you 24 hours to disclose the name of this  speaker of parliament and which country you're referring to,"  Simonyan said, promising to defend his interests in court if he was  involved. He claimed that Karapetyan was "afraid of lawsuits," so he  did not mention the speaker of the legislative body.

In 2025, Armenia's gambling industry underwent significant changes  aimed at increasing revenues to the state budget. A 10% turnover tax  was introduced on all types of gambling, including online casinos,  bookmakers, and lotteries, effective July 1. This reform is expected  to generate approximately 13 billion drams in additional revenue for  the state budget. Gambling duties have doubled, reaching 350 million  drams for online casinos and 100 million drams for bookmakers.  According to the Armenian Ministry of Finance, gambling revenues from  the budget in the past period totaled 23.4 billion drams.