Ministry of Finance of Russian Federation introduced for consideration by the government new amendments to the draft law “On lotteries”, which would create a sole lottery organizer in the country.
The Ministry of Finance submitted for consideration by the government new amendments to the draft law "On lotteries”. The main novelty of the proposed by the Ministry of Finances amendments lies in choosing a sole organizer which has to conclude a contract with state lotteries. In addition, the instant lottery format will remain the same, while functions of such lotteries will be limited to the realization of tickets, which should contain the information on the results of the draw even during their creation.
The Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseyev believes that instant lottery format has been known to the Russians since the Soviet Union times and does not carry the risk. According to Moiseyev, the Ministry of Finance has set itself two goals while developing the amendments: prevent the use of slot machines for gambling, and to prohibit instant lotteries on the Internet.
For this purpose, amendments to the draft law were made. According to these amendments, a sole lottery organizer and company with whom distributors will enter into contracts will be created. Amendments also clearly describe the essence of the lottery machines and video lottery terminals and what is the difference between them and slot machines,
— Moiseyev said.
But, in spite of the prescribed by the draft law measures, consumer rights defenders consider these restrictions to be insufficient to prevent gambling. So, Dmitriy Yanin - Chairman of the Management Board of the International Confederation of Consumer Societies, believes that instant lotteries work on the principle of immediacy causing excitement among the players. Therefore, restoration of lottery machines can be identified with the revival of "one-arm bandits".
The lawyer Sergey Makarov is of the same opinion. According to the expert, as we wrote earlier, lottery tickets issuing machines perform the same function as the slot machines.
