Lawyer José Castillo deplores the fact that there are legislators who are owners of betting businesses, and some of them even have complaints filed against them with the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
During the interview with the El Despertador, the TV morning show on Channel 9, Castillo mentioned that at least nine deputies are owners of gambling businesses: Sergio Moya, Manuel Miguel Florián, Domingo Eusebio Mascaro, Carlos José Gil Rodríguez, Eduard Alexis Espiritusanto, Orlando Martínez and Juan Carlos Echavarría.
“They are so happy that the Attorney General’s Office, so efficient as it is, with the distinguished Miriam German, has not done justice with this group of legislators who cheat the Dominican state every day out of millions of pesos in the payment of taxes,” said Castillo.
“There is a small group of 38 betting shop owners who contribute large amounts of money to the national campaign, and that small group has political and economic power, and many of those are politicians and deputies of the government party and the PLD. It is easier for a betting shop owner to get elected to Congress than for any other person. The amount of money they manage is incredible,” denounced the lawyer.
José Castillo criticized that among the candidates of the ruling party and opposition there are many who manage more than 30,000 betting shops even when these are illegal. He called for a reflection on this situation.
Lawyer Jose Castillo considered that the plan to regularize the betting shops “is in limbo.” “The Dominican government has to put on its pants and intervene in this sector with the law without exception,” he said.
“There is a problem with the distance of the betting shops that must be 200 meters from each other, but most of the shops that were declared in the regularization plan do not comply with the distance,” he added.
The position of the ruling Modern Revolutionary Party (PRM) is that politicians can register to run in the 2024 general elections if they have not been convicted, despite having cases of corruption or irregularities under investigation in the media or judiciary.
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Noticias SIN
12 July 2023