The licensed Bulgarian gambling market has experienced several rounds of negative news over the past while. Still, a recent review of the casino gambling ad ban has provided some hope to return. Join us as we look at how gambling advertising grabbed the attention of lawmakers, what decisions they made that negatively impacted several industries, and how social media came to the rescue.

Bulgaria’s Gambling Baron

Bulgaria has always been very open to gambling products, with the state-licensed lottery being established in 1979. With the fall of the Soviet Union and a more Western approach to games of chance, Bulgaria adopted a pro-casino stance in the early nineties, eventually regulating all forms of gaming, including video slots, by 1998.

However, by 2015, Vasil Bozhkov, a local politician and businessman, rose to prominence thanks to numerous ventures, including his slate of private lotteries, which made him one of the country’s most notorious gambling bosses.

Bozhkov opened the door to mass-market media in Bulgaria, becoming one of the region’s biggest advertisers. When his business was shut down in 2020, numerous online casinos began claiming the advertising space his departure freed up, with estimates for 2023 in the €85 million to €90 million range.

Parliament Slams the Door

Concerns about the influence of online gambling on the Bulgarian population peaked earlier this year. On 30 April 2024, the Bulgarian Parliament sat for a second reading of a proposed bill to ban the advertising of sports betting, private lotteries, and online casinos.

In a surprising outcome, the bill was passed unanimously, with all 198 sitting members of the reading voting in favour of a total ban on gambling ads. The only caveat the new bill allowed was the advertising of the state lottery, Bulgarian Sports Totalisator, which would be allowed to continue as usual, given that its profits are used to fund grassroots sporting initiatives and programs in the country.

The Decision Raised Concerns

While the members of Parliament might have been of one accord, the rest of the country did not follow suit, with several groups airing their concerns over such a widespread and ill-advised blanket ban.

With online casinos still legal in Bulgaria, players will continue to look for sites to join and welcome bonuses to claim.

Stilyan Shishkov, the owner of popular sports news website Sportal, said:

“As the experience of other European markets shows, restricting advertising leads to an increase in the activity of unlicensed sites, which reduces the state’s ability to collect taxes and fees from gambling activities and to provide protection for these users.”

Without any legal way for licensed operators to grab the attention of local players, unlicensed sites will lure players away with no deposit bonuses and promises they do not need to keep.

The Bulgarian advertising sector was hardest hit by the decision, with above-the-line, below-the-line, and online advertising revenues crashing to near zero. This catastrophic reduction of advertising revenue could reduce the industry to ashes, and its expansion of nine years was based on gambling advertising.

The ad ban impacted not only offshore online casino advertising and payment processing but also the ability of land casino venues to advertise their gaming options. There was room to promote shows, buffets, and other non-gambling activities, but the ad spent on that form of enticement would only be a fraction of the previous budget.

The NRA Shines a Beam of Hope

Due to the controversy the ban created in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency (NRA) was forced to review and clarify parts of the approved bill.

One of the areas that came under the spotlight was the extent to which Bulgaria’s Broadcasting Act covered media and its relationship to the internet.

Rumen Spetsov, the director of the NRA, said:

“I consider that social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and TikTok are not media within the scope of the Broadcasting Act, and therefore, there is no reason to restrict them.”

The amendment to the ruling means that while mainstream ad platforms remain prohibited, land-based and online gambling operators can legally advertise their promotions and services on international social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which could see a rise in mobile gambling.

While this does not help the local advertising industry, it will allow licensed gambling providers to mitigate their losses and perhaps reduce the impact of black market operators on the safety and security of the Bulgarian gambling community.