ArmInfo. In Armenia, control over the activities of gambling establishments will be toughened. Corresponding amendments to the law "On Winning Games, Internet Games, and Casinos" were made at the meeting of the National Assembly of Armenia on January 17 in the first reading.
Also, in the first reading, amendments were made to the Law on Lotteries. According to one of the developers of the document, the MP from the ruling Republican Party Samvel Farmanyan, the presented document is called upon to solve a number of problems. According to the current law, permission to participate in the games with lotteries has the right to persons who have reached the age of 18 years, and in games with winnings, games on the Internet, and casinos - 21 years. For violators of this provision, a fine of AMD 100,000 applies. During the period 2014-2017. The Armenian Ministry of Finance has applied only one sanction, but for all it is obvious that the number of people making bets in the casino and on sweepstakes is much larger.
The current sanctions do not serve their purposes, said Farmanyan, who proposed to tighten the liability measures against the organizers of the games with a win. Despite the growth of the influence of this type of business on the country's GDP, nevertheless, it is necessary to limit the participation of minors in these processes. To this end, if the current legislation is violated, the organizer of the games with a win will be fined in the first case in the amount of AMD 2 million, if the violations are repeated within the next year, the fine will increase to 5 million drams, in the third case - up to 10 million drams, in the fourth case - revoke the license and suspend the activities of the gambling establishment.
Another change concerns the organization of games with lotteries, in which, according to the current legislation, persons who have reached the age of 18 have the right to participate. Now it is proposed to raise this qualification to 21 years. Toughening of sanctions, according to Farmanyan, will make the organizers of games win with the letter of the law, because otherwise they will suffer heavy financial losses. According to him, every year young people aged 18-21 carry out a rate of about 10 billion drams, and there is a need to solve this problem. The next step of the authors of the bill will be limiting the advertising of gambling establishments. In turn, RA Deputy Minister of Finance Karen Tamazyan said that in the near future a new bill will be submitted to parliament, according to which gambling machines will be banned on the streets of the country's cities.