Posted on: December 30, 2025, 08:43h.
Last updated on: December 30, 2025, 09:33h.
- Nearly 4,000 Bulgarians who reported themselves as hospitalized were logged entering casinos over 22,000 times during those hospitalizations
- Cross‑checks between casino ID scans and hospital records exposed widespread suspected insurance fraud
- The Eastern European country health insurance manager, which has launched an investigation, cautions that there could be other explanations
Bulgaria may have just discovered a miraculous new medical treatment: a hospital stay so rejuvenating that nearly 4,000 patients felt healthy enough to hit the casino floor — 22,000 times this year.
According to the National Revenue Agency (Bulgaria’s IRS), 3,890 people who were officially listed as hospitalized were recorded entering casinos during those hospital stays.
This apparent insurance fraud wasn’t uncovered by accident. The tax agency began collaborating this year with the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), which manages Bulgaria’s universal healthcare system, cross-checking hospital casino visitor data against reported hospital stays.
The result? Success beyond their wildest imaginations.
All on Code Red!
The NHIF has launched a full investigation. However, until it’s complete, the agency’s deputy director urges people to keep their pitchforks holstered.
“Let’s not call them fraudulent hospitalizations yet,” Prof. Momchil Mavov told sbcnews.co.uk. “This is just one version (of the truth) we’ve been working on … over the last six months.”
The concern: some hospitalizations may never have happened at all. Fraudsters can use a person’s identity, without their knowledge, to create fictitious admissions, then bill the NHIF for treatments that were never performed
Mavrov noted that some cases may also involve patients simply wandering out of the hospital without permission — a violation of medical‑facility rules, but not necessarily organized fraud.
Under Bulgaria’s current gambling rules, every casino visitor must scan a valid ID, and operators must upload those logs — along with real‑time deposit and payout data — directly to the servers of National Revenue Agency (Bulgaria’s IRS).
Mavrov said that falsified hospitalizations may have cost his country’s taxpayers $4.2 million (converted to US dollars) in the first six months of 2025 alone.