Where does our country invest the money it takes from the gambling business to develop addiction prevention activities among young people? The answer to this question was sought by student Christian Yulzari from sCOOl Media in his investigation. For approximately 2 months he has been researching how the money is spent under the National Program for Implementation of Youth Activities under Article 10a of the Gambling Act, managed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Yulzari, who is from Ruse, told BNR that after several conversations with representatives of the non-governmental sector, it became clear to them that the Program was accompanied by many misunderstandings and generally worked in a non-transparent manner.
The elaboration states that the budget of the National Program for Implementation of Youth Activities is formed in relation to the mandatory annual contributions of gambling service operators for socially responsible behavior. The funds are collected by the line ministry, which distributes them in 3 directions. Specifically, this year the budget of the Program amounts to BGN 5,405,000.
During his investigation, the young man found that the Program annually funds large sums of non-governmental organizations, which should work to prevent addiction among young people, but the money comes from organizations whose activities are difficult to track.
„Our inspection found that so far the organizations that implement projects in the field of advertising have only Facebook pages where they publish photos with 2 lines of text, which is by no means an activity for quality prevention of addictions.„, the student commented. this year 4 non-governmental organizations have received BGN 675,000 each in the first direction of the Program – advertising.
„The money is given within 6 months, i.e. organizations need to prevent addictions among young people in the summer, when most young people are on holiday and are not involved in such activities.„, added Yulzari.
The program in question has been in operation for five years. However, there are no criteria in its concept to monitor its effectiveness.
Journalist Maria Cheresheva, editor of the article on Yulzari’s investigation, commented that the findings of the student’s study show that „some organizations are fed large sums of money to carry out activities that are inconsistent with the expected results.“ She believes that it is not seen that the activities under the National Program for Implementation of Youth Activities are aimed at risk groups.
