MPs around Huliak Withdraw Law on Gambling from Parliament

Bratislava, September 11 (TASR) - MPs centred around Tourism and Sport Minister Rudolf Huliak (Independent) have withdrawn from Parliament an amendment to the law on gambling, which was supposed, among other things, to allow national lottery company Tipos to operate self-service terminals for number lotteries, Huliak himself told a news conference on Thursday. The reason is that the amendment should be submitted as a government bill, explained Huliak, adding that it should be dealt with as early as during the September parliamentary session via a fast-track legislative procedure. The minister claims that the amendment will bring hundreds of millions of euros into the state budget next year. "Tipos plans to build no new casinos," stressed Huliak, adding that the state should bring gambling 100 percent under its control. "We're glad that the coalition partners have identified themselves with our proposal, and the new law will first and foremost protect families better, and we'll finally start a real fight against illegal gambling," he said. The Independent MPs centred around Huliak should soon submit a bill aimed at preventing value-added tax-related fraud, said Huliak, who views it as an opportunity to obtain €1 billion for the state budget without touching people's wallets. The MPs, including, for example, Roman Malatinec and Ivan Sevcik (both Independent) intend to come up with other legislative proposals as well. They plan to launch a discussion on local government reform. Huliak, who is also the chairman of the extra-parliamentary Rural Party, explained that the goal is to save money. "At the same time, we want to bring as many powers and as much money as possible directly to people in villages and towns," he said. Huliak announced that their intention is to create joint municipal offices, while preserving the cadastral territories and municipalities themselves. "Currently, there are 2,927 municipalities in Slovakia, and so we have 2,927 municipal offices. Our proposal doesn't aim at merging municipal offices, but at unifying them into 968 joint municipal offices," he explained. Huliak continues to propose the scrapping of self-governing regions, as well as introducing mandatory military service lasting at least three months for those who turn 18. ko/df