Lottomatica and Snai appeal against the first instance sentence of the Court of Auditors of Lazio. Last Friday, a conclusion of the investigation into illegal video poker, the accounting judiciary sentenced the two made in Italy dealerships to pay respectively 100 and 210 million euros. In all, 10 companies were fined and the total penalties reached two and a half billion euros.
Lottomatica believes that “the sentence neglects numerous and essential elements contained in the consultancy requested by the same Court of Auditors to Digit Pa – reads a note from the company -. These elements, together with those brought by Lottomatica Videolot Rete, would prove the company's lack of responsibility. Furthermore, "in the reasons for the sentence there is no evidence of the damage caused to the treasury which, as stated in the reasons themselves, 'given the impossibility of calculating the actual damage suffered', is valued using a method without any foundation".
Snai also communicates that "it will appeal the sentence in order to bring out the correctness of its conduct, from which it cannot derive any responsibility whatsoever". As for the merger with Cogetech SpA, the company recalls that “among the concessionaires to which the sentence in question was addressed, there was also Cogetech itself, which was ordered to pay the sum of 255 million euro (including monetary revaluation). Snai is also evaluating the impact that the sentence may have on the completion of the transaction in question”.
About an hour after the opening of trading, the shares of the two companies are both positive in Piazza Affari. Lottomatica gains 0,3%, while Snai rebounds by plus 1,87%, after the collapse recorded in the last session (-8,28%).
