Head of Bulgarian gambling body accused of assault
Former employee presses charges against State Commission for Gambling Control chairman " understood to have made 30 employees redundant since his appointment in 2010.
The chair of Bulgaria’s State Commission for Gambling Control Kaloyan Krastev has been accused of assaulting a member of his staff at a time when he was overseeing a redundancy drive in which 30 people have been let go from the authority since his appointment in 2010.
One of his former employees, a Mr Presian Stoev who spent nine years working for the Commission as an expert on land-based gambling regulation, verified the accusations, following an incident which saw Stoev suffer bruising around his head and neck, and scratches on his arms.
He alleges that following an argument over his dismissal from the regulator Krastev locked his office door and proceeded to attack him. Stoev claims to have been the 24 employee to be made redundant, according to Bulgarian newspaper Blitz, with a further five members of staff let go from the authority following the incident.
Blitz went on to reveal that a number of complaints have been made against Krastev by current and former staff of the regulator, with one woman, reportedly dismissed after complaining about bullying, too scared to return to work after being reinstated by an employment tribunal.
“The atmosphere in the Commission is very poor; people are very afraid and there is great tension,” Stoev told the paper.
Krastev, who was appointed in February 2010 to replace Dimitar Terziev who resigned after suspicions over amendments he introduced to the country’s gambling act, has denied the allegations, claiming to have been acting in self-defence. He is thought to enjoy a close relationship with the Bulgarian finance minister Simeon Djankov, with whom he attended school in the city of Lovech.
The news comes just weeks before Bulgaria is expected to issue its first online gambling licences on 1 July, after the ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party halved the rate of tax after the original 15% gross profit tax (GPT) was described as too restrictive. A member of the government’s Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee told the radio station Bulgaria on Air that: “”¦ [N]o foreign operator would come to Bulgaria, because the taxation would be very high. In practice the tax in Bulgaria is twice bigger that in France or Malta.”
As a result operators applying for a licence will be required to have at least five years’ experience of operating in the market and a physical presence in the country, but will now only have to pay a 6% or 8% GPT rate.
The Bulgarian government has also passed a motion to mandate internet service providers to block unlicensed gambling sites, despite protests from the country’s Socialist Party.