“Austrian Lottery” investigated for corruption

Its boss, Friedrich Stickler, who is also President of the European Association of State Lotteries, was summoned to the Anti-Corruption Commission of the Austrian Parliament to testify regarding some suspicious actions of the company in 2006.

The Company is being investigated for some suspicious payments made to politicians in order to hamper the liberalization of the gambling market in Austria during 2006. The two ruling political forces of that time, OVP and BZO, undertook a legal initiative for softening the monopoly in the gambling industry.

But the law failed after Mr. Stickler contacted some leaders of the two parties. During the testimony at the Anti-corruption Commission, the head of the Austrian Lottery admitted that he had spoken on the phone with high rank government officials about this matter, but that was initially for informing them about what was happening and for explaining to the officials the dramatic consequences of this law in the gambling industry.

But new facts came up during the investigation. The biggest suspicions are related with a 300.000 EUR payment that Austrian Lottery had paid to an agency that had close ties to the ruling party that proposed the amends. The Austrian Lottery justified the payment as a honorary for a study on the gambling market, but it rose great suspicions. The prosecutors have considered the study as “an amateur work that cannot cost 300.000 EUR”, and that it was 20 times pricier than the real value. Mr. Stickler  admitted that he had signed the payment, but he considered it a normal transaction, denying any accusation that the goal of that payment was to bribe the politicians.

Austrian Lottery is the company that holds the monopoly of the entire gambling industry in Austria, despite the strong critics from Brussels for liberalizing the market.

The Company is now famous in Albania as the company that is expected to receive the Albanian National Lottery license. The Ministry of Finances answered to the accusations by claiming that their measures stop suspicious competitors from entering the race, allowing this way only the companies with an undamaged reputation, such as “Austrian Lottery”, according to them.

Friedrich Stickler, besides being the vice director of the Austrian Lottery is also President of the European State Lottery association. The Albanian government addressed to this association for advices at the lottery tender. After this request, the association led by Mr. Stickler recommended the Albanian government to not put the price among the criteria for the lottery tender, in which Austrian Lottery would compete, the company of Mr. Stickler.

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