Epress.am News from Armenia
Republican Party of Armenia MP Vardan Ayvazyan presented in parliament today his authored bill on making amendments to the RA Law on Gambling and Casinos, in which he is proposing that casinos be able to operate not only outside of Yerevan, but also anywhere in the country if the owner makes an investment of more than 40 billion AMD (a little over $99 thousand USD). During discussion of the bill, Armenian National Congress (HAK) MP Hrant Bagratyan asked why small businesses are not supported and even in the case of casinos there is a move toward big business.
Ayvazyan responded that big businesses will make the work of the gambling industry more "civilized".
He added that he is opposed to the deployment of 20 gambling machines "in every corner" and he is in favor of big business (and thus, consolidation). According to him, the investment rates were changed to help the sector.
"We lowered 800 million and made it 150 million for those areas, in some cases 120 million; we even went to the border areas — where necessary we lowered it to 80 million," he said.