Lottery

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet ?im?ek said on April 15 the country's national lottery privatization tender process will probably continue with the second highest bidder, rather than giving further time to the top bidder to sign a deal.

Romanian prosecutors are to start hearing testimony from the heads and employees of country's national lottery, CNLR, over illegal slot-machine gambling that is believed to have cost the state budget more than 100 million euros.

The first draw of the Tax Receipts Lottery will be held on Monday, April 13, on the second day of Easter, and the prize pool is 1 million lei (some 227,000 euros), the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF) announced on Thursday.

Photo credit: (c) Mirel TUDORACHE / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

A rough idea on the list’s content

-A 1 cent “fat tax” on products containing sugar and fat (or even … salt)

-“Fines” of 10% -15% to 50,000 euros for individuals who exported untaxed cash

- Property tax in 2015 in order to collect about 2.5 billion, but with targeted changes so owners of cheaper property enjoy a “breather”

-15,000 of tax free yearly income

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

Turkey?s Directorate General for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has announced that accepting prizes won through gift draws is acceptable in Islam, though it has repeatedly stated that the lottery classifies as gambling and is against Islam.

One lucky lottery ticket holder woke up 4 million euros richer on Thursday.

The person who bought ticket number 87425 in the 4th series of the New Year’s lottery walked away with the big prize. Another four people won 500,000 euros each.

Anyone holding ticket number 87425 from any of the other series, wins 10,000 euros.

There were no winners in Sunday’s draw for the Jackpot lottery in Greece for the 15th draw in a row.

As a result, it is expected that the prize will reach 17 million euros when the next draw is held on Thursday.

The numbers in Sunday’s draw were 42, 39, 16, 9 and 5. The bonus, or Joker, number was 12.

An Albanian Ministry of Finance spokesperson told BIRN that a new lottery, aimed at tackling tax evasion, will be "launched officially in April 2015".

Gambling firm OPAP has teamed up with a British fund manager to bid for the country’s horse race betting license, days after the privatization agency scrapped a previous tender.

Greece is selling a 20-year license to take wagers on horse races but the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) scrapped the tender this week.