Lawyer: Closure benefits the gray market
Israel’s High Court of Justice has ruled that slot and Keno machines in the state, shut down by the Finance Ministry earlier this month, must be reactivated while the court considers the viability of the industry.
According to Haaretz, the Finance Ministry said it would not renew the operating license of the state lottery, Mifal Hapayis, unless it shut down the 650 machines run by franchisees around the country.
Franchisees petitioned the High Court, saying they received no notice of the shutdown and have suffered financial harm as a result.
“Bettors continue to gamble but instead of the money going to Mifal Hapayis, which builds schools, it’s going into the pockets of loan sharks of the underworld,” said a lawyer for the petitioners. “The treasury may want to save gamblers, but it’s causing them to sink deeper into the mud with loans from the gray market.”
The order to reactivate was handed down by Justice Yoram Danzinger last week.
