Gambling machines in CNG filling stations should be removed ASAP, says PM

The gambling devices which are functioning at filling stations cause great problems not only in village communities, and these devices should simply be removed from these areas as soon as possible, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today at the Cabinet meeting.

“How should we organize this in order for us to truly solve this problem accurately, this is a very important question. Overall when we look at our economic growth indicators it turns out that these gambling machines have become the leading branch of our economy. This is totally absurd, and our policy should be to change our logic: on one hand it encourages poverty, on the other hand, pardon me, [gambling addiction]. We must pursue a kind of policy where we won’t encourage neither the first one nor the second, this is a very serious problem and people, families, fates and others are being affected,” the PM said.

According to him this process should be organized as soon as possible. The PM said that they have reports that the interests of a group of companies are taken into account, whereas the others aren’t.

“There is no problem, we will discuss openly, transparently, publicly, we will understand whose interests are more taken into account, whose not, where objective issues exist, we will exclude them and solve this problem, because this really is a serious problem, and people are alarming about this problem in masses,” he said.

Gambling machines similar to slot devices are common in Armenian CNG filling stations.