The director of the National Lottery, Teófilo (Quico) Tabar is having a tough time organizing the gambling and sports betting businesses after decades of government complacency. Government reticence to regulate the gaming sector has resulted in betting shops opening all over the cities and towns.
Tabar is a veteran government officer who President Luis Abinader called in to organize the sector after a major fraud was detected at the National Lottery under a director named in his government. But, from recent news reports, the challenge is bigger than Tabar had originally envisioned he was taking on. In a press conference, Tabar explained that while there are some that want to regularize, there are others that understand they are powerful and do not have to do so. “They have accused themselves in front of members of the [Gaming Consultive] Council of having contributed millionaire sums to obtain rulings in favor of certain sectors,” complained Tabar.
Tabar spoke of the Ministry of Hacienda resolution that calls for the regularization of the betting shops in operation. The resolution gave a grace period for these to go from illegal to regularized and to comply with the payment of taxes, and adjusting to the established regulations, such as distance between one and another.
“We held countless meetings both with the Concessionaires, Fenabanca, sports banks, casinos and with the programmers. Individually and jointly. The last ones were held just three days ago. Both the Lottery’s Consultative Council and the Follow-up Council have made countless efforts to get this sector to reach an agreement. But the situation among them is difficult, even to choose the delegates to the Follow-up Council,” he complained.
He said he has proposed that the President of the Republic summon the representatives of the different gaming sectors, as a whole, so that in a prudent period of time they present an agreed and notarized solution between the parties. And that as a result of the meeting, that they determine whether or not to use other methods different from the ones he has proposed.
“Luis Abinader knows that as President and as a friend he can always count on me. But given the present situation, and knowing the strings that are being pulled, I understand that the most convenient thing to do is to seek other opinions,” he concluded.
An editorial in Diario Libre explains that at the core of the matter is that the owners of the betting businesses want to continue in anonymity.“ Tabar stated that the owners of the country’s betting shops do not want it to be known who they are, much less how much money they have in profits. “The millionaire business, then, could lend itself to all kinds of illicit actions that escape the control of the authorities,” he said.
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Diario Libre
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Diario Libre
24 May 2022