Twenty-nine individuals linked to the gambling business donated a total of 1,496,500 lari to the ruling Georgian Dream party and its former presidential candidate, Salome Zourabichvili, according to Transparency International Georgia (TI).
TI claims that in exchange for financial support, gambling industry representatives receive new licenses, multi-million-value government tenders, and de facto immunity from the authorities.
The organization highlighted several key figures associated with this scheme:
- Lasha Kvachadze and Aleksi Modebadze – former and current owners of Europebet and Orbital;
- Tital and Kniaz Daseni – sons of Georgian Dream MP Isko Dasen, who hold dual Georgian and Russian citizenship. Their companies hold 10 gambling licenses;
- Tamaz Kharaidze – co-owner of Betlive and a relative of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s family;
- Giorgi Lomtatidze – a Batumi City Council member from Georgian Dream and former co-owner of Geogrator.
According to TI, the largest donors were current and former owners and executives of Europebet, who donated 740,000 lari to the ruling party. Another 445,000 lari came from individuals connected to Orbital.
The organization asserts that individuals affiliated with Europebet and Orbital alone transferred 825,000 lari to Georgian Dream, while representatives of other companies in the gambling sector, including Kutaisi 2010, Crystal Plus, Betlive, and Geogrator, contributed hundreds of thousands of lari.
“The casino funds the party, the party protects the casino. In this vicious circle, society is the only loser,” Transparency International Georgia said in a statement.