Entrance to a gaming hall in Bucharest (© Cristi Dangeorge/Shutterstock)
Betting and gambling companies have gained enormous influence in Bulgaria and Romania. Not only on the people who slip into gambling addiction, but also on the media, which suffer from their economic power. New laws seek to contain this influence, but their impact is unclear
(This article was originally published by Romanian newspaper Hotnews as part of the PULSE project, in collaboration with Bulgarian outlet Mediapool )
While in Romania the bill banning gambling advertising has been stalled in parliament for over a year, the Bulgarian parliament recently approved a law completely banning gambling advertising in any type of media. The only exception concerns state-owned lottery "Bulgarian Sports Totalisator", which is required to use its profits to finance Bulgarian sport. Proposed by the parties GERB (PPE) and DPS (Renew Europe), the introduction of the ban on gambling advertising received 198 votes in favour and no votes against or abstentions out of 240 total seats.
Hundreds of new gaming halls and casinos have opened in Bulgaria over the last decade, but it is now forbidden to open casinos in towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants. A similar measure was recently adopted in Romania as well.
The gambling boom
Bulgarian parties had turned a blind eye for ten years to the gambling industry, which began to flourish in Bulgaria in 2015. Since then Vasil Bozhkov, the largest Bulgarian gambling entrepreneur, has built an empire through his private lotteries. Within 4-5 years, hundreds of thousands of people started scratching off huge quantities of lottery tickets, leading private lotteries to reach an annual turnover of 700 million Euros.
However, at the end of 2019, the Naydenov family, already in business with Bozhkov and owner of Efbet, denounced the businessman, claiming that private lotteries had evaded taxes for around 250 million Euros. A large-scale investigation against Bozhkov immediately began, so much so that in 2020 his business was closed and Bozhkov fled to Dubai to avoid arrest; in the meantime the US Treasury Department also sanctioned him for corruption.
The closure of Bozhkov's business has broadened the niche available to many small online gambling operators, that have quickly become the largest source of revenue for the Bulgarian media. According to official data, in 2023 gambling companies, first and foremost Bulgarian Efbet and Winbet and Greek Betano, spent the equivalent of 85 million Euros on media advertising. For example, Bulgarian TV was massively invaded by advertising from gambling sites during the men's football world cup in Qatar.
Media independence at risk?
Although public opinion is very supportive of the ban on gambling advertising recently introduced in Bulgaria, the measure has met with opposition not so much from betting companies, but from the country's main television stations and various media groups. The major broadcasters argue that this law could compromise the independence and quality of their journalism, given the important role that gambling advertising had taken on in their financial sustainability. It is estimated that gambling advertising earned the equivalent of around 100 million Euros for TV and digital media in 2022 and almost 80 million in 2023, covering 20-30% of the advertising revenues of some private broadcasters.
“Introducing a new law like this at such short notice, and without discussing it with stakeholders, could threaten the economic independence of the media. The measure will have a significant impact on our group”, Dirk Gerkens, CEO of Nova Broadcasting Group (United Media), one of Bulgaria's two largest private broadcasters, told colleagues at Mediapool. Other commercial broadcasters confirmed that the new law will deprive them of large annual revenues.
Bulgarian business weekly Capital questions whether the reduction in revenue for the major private TV channels is aimed at their greater control by political entities. “If the ban comes into force immediately, it will blow the budgets of Bulgarian broadcasters and publishers. It is a targeted attack against them in an electoral context”, said Sibina Grigorova, editor-in-chief of the website Boulevard Bulgaria. According to the journalist, the ban will not be able to have an effective application on the Internet.
However, certain sectors of the Bulgarian press have welcomed the new law. “Private broadcasters should not justify the presence of gambling in their programmes with reasons of public interest. Freedom of expression is indeed threatened, but the threat comes from within the media themselves", comments Zhanna Popova, professor at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication at Sofia University.
Stilian Shishkov's version
Stilian Shishkov, founder of the largest Bulgarian sports news site, Sportal.bg, and co-owner of Romanian newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor, wonders whether it is technically possible to limit gambling advertising on online platforms, social networks, podcasts, and so on. Shishkov also argues that the ban will penalise Bulgarian companies on the global market: “Offering better conditions to foreign companies than domestic ones marks a surrender. Foreign companies that win contracts with gambling operators will not be subject to sanctions in Bulgaria, will not pay taxes here, will not have employees in our country”, adds Shishkov.
Shishkov is also the founder of the Bulgarian Gambling Association, an organisation that aims to create a "comprehensive experience" for gamblers. In 2021, the association won a project subsidised by the National Programme for Youth Activities, which is managed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and is financed with part of the taxes paid by gaming and betting companies; over the years the programme has been involved in a number of scandals and corruption charges.
The BGAA therefore launched an annual project for the “prevention of gambling addiction among young people” called “Bet on yourself, not on gambling. Don't become addicted!”. A dedicated website, a Facebook page and paid content on the Sportal.bg website were created, and webinars were organised. Yet, Sportal.bg regularly publishes articles and forms partnerships with betting and gambling companies, encouraging readers to play.
Stilian Shishkov is convinced that the new law on gambling advertising will lead to a growth of the “grey” sector: “As the experience of other European markets shows, restrictions on advertising lead to an increase in the activity of sites without license. It thus diminishes the state's ability to collect gambling taxes and protect users".
New initiatives in Romania
In October 2023, the Romanian government imposed by decree higher taxes on the gambling industry, banned alcoholic beverages in gaming and betting venues, and increased the guarantees that companies in the sector are required to provide, e.g. having their registered office in Romania. At the end of April 2024, a law came into force that eliminates slot machines from all urban centres with fewer than 15,000 inhabitants. However, the measure does not prohibit betting, so the rooms that have self-service betting terminals will remain open.
A bill that banning betting and gambling companies from advertising is stuck in Parliament, forgotten in the Chamber of Deputies after being watered down by senators. The measure, proposed in February 2023, was also promoted thanks to a petition launched by NGO Declic , signed by almost 200,000 people.
However, the senators of the PSD, PNL, and UDMR parties have amended the original proposal, so much so that the current bill would allow gambling adverts to be shown on TV between 11pm and 6am (as the law already in force provides). It would also be possible to insert advertising from a betting company into live sports programmes at any time, as long as it is followed by the message "Be responsible!".
The case of Gazeta Sporturilor and Libertatea
In the second half of 2023, several Romanian journalists were fired by or resigned from Gazeta Sporturilor and Libertatea after accusing the management of Ringier Sports Media Group – which controls the two newspapers – of trying to interfere with the content of some articles on the betting industry. The Ringier group denied, but within three months it fired the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Sporturilor, Cătălin Țepelin, and his deputy Dan Udrea, the editorial coordinator of Gazeta and Libertatea, Cătălin Tolontan, and the deputy editor-in-chief of Libertatea, Iulia Roșu, four of the journalists who had reported the attempted interference in the work of the editorial team; the print edition of Gazeta Sporturilor was closed overnight. Following these developments, several journalists from Libertatea resigned.
A report by the International Press Institute (IPI) – one of the main global organisations for press freedom (and partner of OBCT, ed.) – published in April 2024 analysed these events. In the report, IPI draws attention to the power of the betting industry in Romania and its links to the owner of 49% of Gazeta, the aforementioned Stilian Shishkov. “At the heart of the scandal was the influence of the betting industry in Romania and allegations that a member of Ringier Sports Management Group tried to pressure journalists to cover the gambling industry”, reads the report.
Another example of the links between the betting industry and the Romanian media cited by IPI is "the purchase of 40% of the shares of the Romanian news agency News.ro by the founder of Superbet, Sacha Dragic, who also launched a news aggregator, informat.ro".
Dan Duca (Hotnews) and Bulgarian freelance journalist Maria Cheresheva contributed to this article.
This article was produced as part of PULSE, a European initiative coordinated by OBCT that supports transnational journalistic collaborations.
