People Abuse Faulty Tipos Gambling System to Launder Money

Bratislava, April 16 (TASR) - Dozens of people have abused a defective system operated by state-run national lottery company Tipos to launder money by transferring funds from gambling accounts into their personal bank accounts without actually placing any bets, news outlet aktuality.sk reported on Tuesday, adding that Tipos employees have already let the finance minister know about this. Tipos erased 142 gambling accounts last spring. "The speculators were using [the accounts] to send financial resources to their or other bank accounts. They were doing this without actually placing bets. First they deposited money in their gambling accounts and then simply sent the money to bank accounts," stated the outlet. Once such money was deposited in a bank account, there was no mention in the recipients' statements that the money came from online gambling. However, it's clear that money from Tipos was in the frame. "This meant that banks didn't necessarily have a hunch that money was being laundered," stated aktuality.sk. It remains unclear how much money passed through the 142 accounts. An official Tipos statement claims that it was roughly €260,000. According to information from aktuality.sk, however, the sum could be many times higher, even exceeding €20 million. This is based on a claim also made in Tipos's letter to former finance minister Peter Kazimir, his state secretary and Tipos's supervisory board. Tipos stated that it will immediately remedy the situation after the matter is investigated in detail, while calling on its contract partner to provide compensation for the damage caused. The system will be adjusted, and money can no longer be transferred without gambling. The news outlet has reported that no Tipos employee has been held accountable for the problem so far. zel/df