Bulgaria’s State Gambling Commission (SCC) has suspended the operating license of Eurofootball, the country’s oldest sports betting operator, over unpaid betting taxes. The suspension will be in effect for 90 days, according to Reuters. The taxes and interest amount to US$182.4 million.
A message on Eurofootball’s website attacked the SCC’s decision, with the headline, “Another destruction of Bulgarian business leaves thousands of families without income.”
“We would like to point out that Eurofootball OOD has been around for almost 30 years and has always paid the due state fees in accordance with the Gambling Act, which were explicitly approved by the Minister of Finance directly and by the State Gambling Commission,” the message said.
“In order to protect the interest and the name of the business, Eurofootball took all necessary and possible measures, according to the Bulgarian and European legislation, but the government used the whole repressive apparatus of the state against our team and the lawyers involved in the case.”
The sportsbook said the SCC took “systematic illegal actions” against Eurofootball in order to let non-Bulgarian betting operators into the country. Eurofootball claims the move would harm its nearly 800 point-of-sale partners, 2,300 employees and the people of Bulgaria through loss of tax revenues.
In January, Eurofootball owner Vasil Bozhkov was charged with extortion, attempted bribery, money laundering, running an organized crime group, and later on with rape and conspiracy to murder, among other crimes.
The businessman, one of Bulgaria’s richest men, has denied all the allegations and fled the country, telling Bulgarian media he feared for his life.
Bozhkov was detained in the United Arab Emirates in early February, according to Casino News Daily. Later that month, Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor Ivan Geshev said that his office had prepared a request for the businessman’s extradition.
