The Bulgarian Ministry of Finance has appointed Georgi Yordanov as interim chairman of the country’s State Gambling Commission (SCC) following the resignation of Alexander Georgiev (l.).
Georgiev, who had served in the role since last April, resigned following his detention by police in relation to an ongoing investigation of gambling mogul Vasil Bozhkov.
Yordanov most recently was chief of cabinet of the Minister of Finance, a position he had held since November 2014. Prior to that, he was head of the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Environment and Water and also spent time as a state inspector at the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Finance.
Prior to that, he was director of the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food and chief secretary of the National Plant Protection Service.
Bulgarian media report that Bozhkov has been accused of tax evasion, bribery and extortion. He has denied any wrongdoing. Bozhkov was arrested in the United Arab Emirates earlier this month, and the Bulgarian government is working to extradite him back to Bulgaria to face charges.
In addition to Yordanov, the Ministry of Finance has made several other changes to the SCC:
- Stoyan Stoyanov, chief secretary of the Ministry of Justice
- Paun Ilchev, acting chairman of the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology
- Krasimir Boyadzhiev, head of the Special Investigation Unit, Control Directorate at the National Revenue Agency
- Emil Zahariev, director of the Specialized Directorate at SANS
In recent weeks, Bulgarian legislator Valeri Simenov, a member of the National Front for Salvation Party, also moved to introduce a bill to ban private lotteries in the country and restrict the operation of lotteries to a government-owned monopoly.
Simeonov introduced an amendment to the country’s 2012 Gambling Act which would allow only the Bulgarian Sports Totalizator (BST) to organize lotteries in Bulgaria. However, raffle, bingo and keno games could still be organized privately.
The licenses for all private lottery games would be terminated three months after the bill is passed, at which point private operators would have to withdraw from the market.
