Bookmakers protest potential shutdown
Bookmaking companies are staging protests outside the Armenian parliament building in Yerevan against a bill which if passed will restrict their operations.
The protesting bookmakers want a meeting with Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan. They’ve blocked the adjacent Baghramyan Avenue.
The demonstrators argue that by closing bookmaking offices the gambling addiction problem won’t be solved.
“By closing the offices it is the number of jobs that is being cut. Just look how much we pay in taxes,” a protesting bookmaker said.
Security personnel outside the parliament told the demonstrators that lawmakers are willing to receive a group of the bookmakers to discuss the matter. Five demonstrators entered the building for negotiations.
The author of the bill is Vice Speaker Alen Simonyan. The bill provisions banning bookmaking offices in the country, with only a few exceptions. Initially, they discussed the possibility of each bookmaking organization only having a single office in each provincial capital, and a single office in each district in Yerevan, but then the discussion focused on the possibility of having a single office in each electoral district. Under the proposal, these offices will be gradually closed after one year, and in two years time all bookmaking offices will be shut down.
