Lebanon loses ‘millions of dollars’ to illegal gambling, official says

While its politicians continued to bicker, Lebanon has been bleeding “millions of dollars” in revenue as illegal gambling operators continue to flourish in the country.

Al Bawaba News reported that Lebanon’s online gambling bill has been gathering dust on the Congress shelf, as the never-ending political debate on who will be regulating online gambling in the country raged on.

The controversial draft decree, which would give the Lebanese government the power to regulate online gambling, was filed in Congress in 2012. An unnamed official from the country’s Finance Ministry told the news outlet that they already amended the draft decree several times to keep it up to date but legislators have been brushing it aside.

“We amended a draft in 2012 to include all gaming outside Casino du Liban, including the bingo centers … under the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry,” the official said, according to the news outlet. “It hasn’t been approved or discussed by anyone since then because of the political nonsense you know about.”