Gambling law changes that provide for a total ban for advertisements in television, radio and online publications, can lead to serious problems for both media and sports. This is the opinion of experts in both fields. The proposal to limit advertisements is from GERB and DPS and was submitted in the last working days of the 49th National Assembly. In order to finally vote on the texts, the parliament is meeting in an extraordinary session tomorrow.
The main motive of the text importers for the ban on advertising in the media is to protect people and to deal with gambling addiction. At first reading, the texts received full support from all parties, but with requests that restrictions should also be introduced so that the socially weak and people with obligations cannot play.
In “Hello, Bulgaria” the president of the Bulgarian Volleyball Federation Lubo Ganev commented that the effect on the sport would be negative. The income from the betting companies is more than the funds provided by the state, he added.
„If you reduce his advertising, you will also reduce his income from the activity. Naturally, all these social costs will be cut first, and sport is a social cost. The money for the Ministry of Sports comes mainly from the sports bookmaker. If you ban the advertising of the sports bookmaker, because it is a betting site itself, this money will not come in, Ganev stressed.
According to him, if sports will not be able to rely on these funds, the state must necessarily have a plan B. The journalist from “24 hours” Samuil Ognyanov commented that after similar measures in different countries, players do not give up, but are redirected to the gray sector. According to him, this may be an attempt to put pressure on the media.
„This is how you get a weaker media, which, accordingly, perhaps, you try to control. Let's hope it's an oversight. For me, it's worse if someone wearing power, in this case legislative, tries to strike at the freedom of the media, and it's targeted, Ognyanov believes.
If the texts are adopted, at the end of the week gambling advertising will be allowed only on billboards not near schools.