Senior officials in the national lottery have given donations and gifts that lead to suspicions of a conflict of interest, according to State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss’s semi-annual report, released on Wednesday. As an example, tens of thousands of shekels were given to an organization headed in part by lottery officials. 400,000 shekels worth of gifts were given to outside interests, particularly government officials and associates of lottery workers.

The report also found that lottery officials discriminated against certain towns when distributing donations. Most towns that received donations were located in the central district, while the 86 towns whose requests for donations were rejected were all located in the periphery.

Lottery officials said they would take the report’s criticisms into consideration, and announced that changes to lottery procedures had already begun.