Government planning to use profits from «Gosloto” to finance Olympics in Sochi
One of these days Russia is launching the national Olympic lottery. Most of the profits will go for financing the construction of sports facilities in Sochi. All in all, within five years it is expected to receive over USD2.5 billion.
The lottery will be operated by “Orglot” company established by “Gazprombank” in 2006. Experts believe that raising funds with the help of the lottery is quite promising. “Using lottery funds is a good alternative for such resources of financing the coming Olympics as issuing bonds and loans,” thinks Valeriy Petrov, general director of “Ingosstrakh-Investitsii” managing company.
According to Law “On lotteries”, “Gosloto” will be held only under the instruction of the Russian government. All earnings shall be deemed a target allocation to the federal budget. The amount of the allocations can not be less than 10% of the profits. Vice President of Russian Association of Gaming Business Development Boris Belotserkovski says, “10% is a really large amount. 50% must be in the prize fund, 10-15% for the infrastructure. This method of financing is used all over the world. It is but right that it is arranged by the state for sports development.”
Among “Gosloto” operator`s expenses, there is installation of 16 thousand terminals accepting lottery tickets. They will appear in each locality with the population over 3 thousand people. By the end of this year 4 thousand machines shall have been installed in Russia, and the earnings of “Orglot” operator will reach 93 billion rubles. The company hopes that about 20 million people will play “Gosloto” annually, the average cost of the ticket being 100 rubles.
“Prime-TASS”