Veteran government official Teófilo (Quico) Tabar is giving private betting ventures 30 days to reorganize. He said the government-owned National Lottery in the month’s time would no longer celebrate the daily drawings that are televised daily in coordination with the National Federation of Lotteries (Fenabanca). The announcement comes after Tabar was called in following accusations of fraud in the drawings have been made against his predecessor, Luis Dicent. Dicent is in pretrial custody after being accused of participating in the alleged fraud in the 1 May drawing.
As reported, Tabar sent a letter to Fenabanca stating: “…given that no Special Executive Power authorized the administrators of the National Lottery to sign contracts with Fenabanca, neither in February 2000 nor in December 2005, and given that the National Lottery does not have any Fenabanca connection other than carrying out and transmitting of the draws, we are terminating the contractual relationship.”
Quico Tabar told Noticias SIN that he believes that this is the only way to disassociate the National Lottery and the government from the private conflict between competing betting shops associations. Tabar said the National Lottery does not have the authority to regulate the betting shops and the relationship was limited to carrying out the drawings.
Tabar is encouraging the betting shops to meet with the Ministry of Hacienda to determine how the drawings would be held in the future. The Ministry of Hacienda regulates gambling in the Dominican Republic.
Ruben Jimenez, president of Fenabanca, recently said that the Ministry of Hacienda has been lax in regulating the betting shops. He says the registered betting shops pay from RD$5,000 a month to 1% of sales. He explained that the National Lottery has held the drawings since 1999 as a way to motivate the clandestine betting shops to regularize themselves and pay taxes.
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Noticias SIN
Diario Libre
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El Nacional
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El Dia
25 June 2021