The Czech Finance Ministry has dismissed reports stemming from an angry mayor that it gave 500-year long permits for three gaming machines in his district.
“The Ministry of Finance did not give permission for video [gaming] terminals for 500 years, but for an indefinite period,” it said in a statement reacting to blanket coverage of comments by Brno central mayor Libor Šťástka (Civic Democrats, ODS) on Monday.
‘It is just unthinkable that a machine subject to amortization could not only physically, but also morally, function for 500 years.’
“It is just unthinkable that a machine subject to amortization could not only physically, but also morally, function for 500 years,” the ministry said.
The ministry said the gaming machines referred to by the mayor were the first from a central lottery system which were given permission. The operator, CLS Starport, of the Sazka lottery company, were no longer in operation, it added. Šťástka could not be contacted to respond to the ministry.
Šťástka was initially reported by the web server Novinky.cz to have highlighted the 500-year permits as part of his bid to combat the invasion of gaming parlors, or herna bars, in his locality and the failure of the regulator, the Ministry of Finance, to draft tougher rules or even use the existing ones to clamp down on them.
