The Ministry of Finance is looking for an operator to conduct Olympic lotteries

The Ministry of Finance has developed a concept for organizing and holding all-Russian lotteries in support of Sochi-2014. As Kommersant writes, according to the document, "a legal entity created in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, located in the Russian Federation", and also becoming the winner of an open competition of the Ministry of Finance, can become a single lottery operator. In accordance with a government decree, the Ministry of Finance was instructed to organize 12 all-Russian state lotteries, including two lotteries in real time.

All initial expenses for organizing and conducting Olympic lotteries are borne by their operator "at their own expense". "In the future, all expenses for conducting lotteries, including reimbursement of start-up costs, will be covered by remuneration paid to the lottery operator," the concept says. The amount of remuneration is not specified in the document. But its authors calculate in detail the mechanism of deductions to the budget - at least 10 percent of the proceeds from the sale of lottery tickets.

These funds will be used to finance the 2014 Winter Olympics, as well as the development of physical culture and sports in Russia, the document says. In addition, the operator will have to pay $54 million for the right to use the Olympic symbols by signing a license agreement with the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee. According to the calculations of the Ministry of Finance, the term of lotteries in real time will be seven years. They will be conducted "using lottery terminals connected to a central computer center." The duration of ten non-circulation lotteries is five years. Lottery tickets will be sold through points of sale of already existing sales networks, as well as a "nationwide network of lottery terminals", which the lottery operator will be required to create. In addition, the Ministry of Finance proposes to use individual agents, postal networks, bank branches, communication networks, as well as vending machines for the sale of Olympic lottery tickets.

According to Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Savatyugin, a tender will be announced in March to develop the conditions for a competition to select a lottery operator "in accordance with the law "On Lotteries" and the concept of holding Olympic lotteries prepared by the Ministry of Finance." According to him, it is too early to talk about specific applicants for participation in the main competition. Unofficially, the ministry names the gambling holding Ritzio Entertainment Group, co-owned by Oleg Boyko, which develops, in particular, Russian Lotto, as one of the favorites of the upcoming competition. "His people actively advised the Ministry of Finance in everything related to the holding of lotteries," says Savatyugin.

The Ministry of Finance did not rule out that a consortium could be created to participate in the competition, which could include Sberbank. "I think that any lottery operator will be happy to have such a partner as Sberbank with its largest branch network in the country," the source said.