Parliament banned advertising for all forms of gambling, including lotteries, raffles, sports and non-sports betting. This includes adverts on television, in the print media, in movie theaters, in video and online content, through mobile networks, on billboards, transit advertising, or via mail. The MPs gave the bill a final reading and adopted it by 55 votes in favor on November 25, IPN reports.
The bill was drafted by a group of PAS MPs, who argued that gaming creates victims and addiction, including among minors, while this industry is being promoted through aggressive marketing and publicity campaigns. The lawmakers consider addiction to gambling has a devastating effect on the financial situation of the population.
The bill sponsors said over 1.3 million lottery tickets are sold daily in Moldova and most of them are bought by low-income people. According to them, in 2017 lottery ticket sales totaled 3.4 million lei, in 2020 they amounted to 613 million lei, skyrocketing to 2.6 billion lei in just eight months of this year. And whereas 425,000 tickets were sold in 2017, in eight months of this year their number amounted to 328 million.
