Time for consolidation, dialogue and effective steps

from Casino Life Issue 157 Volume 19

Style!

In a time of anti-casino pushback, a proactive, industry-wide response is needed

Recently, there has been much speculation around the gambling market. Despite the success of the licensed brands, which managed to maintain their business even despite the war, and paid billions of hryvnias of license fees and taxes to the state budget, the market continues to be mercilessly criticized. The ambiguous situation that has developed today in the legal gambling market causes concern.

Criticism of legal organizers is constantly increasing. Currently, it is on one of the highest levels since the legalization of gambling in Ukraine.

Despite all the gains in the legal gambling market, calls to make gambling illegal again are becoming more frequent and louder. From a logical point of view, it is impossible to understand why this is happening, because for a little more than two years of operation, the legal gambling organizers paid billions of hryvnias into the state budget, created thousands of jobs and showed a patriotic attitude in actions not words, donating almost one billion hryvnias for the needs of the army and civilian population.

Taking into account the contrast between the real actions of representatives of legal gambling, and the current social and political context that has developed around the industry, members of the Ukrainian Gambling Council prepared a collective appeal to the top political leadership and government institutions. They proposed to take appropriate measures to stabilize the situation.

In our opinion, these steps will make it possible to preserve the industry, which annually generates hundreds of millions of hryvnias of revenue for the state budget, and will give impetus to its further development. In particular, the UGC members that signed the appeal ask the following:

First, to adopt the draft Law on Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine and Other Laws of Ukraine on Taxation of Income from the Organization and Conduct of Gambling and Lotteries (registration number 2713-d dated 19 June 2020).

Second, to adopt the draft Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “On approval of the Procedure for the Operation of the State Online Monitoring System.”

Third, ensure the creation and putting into operation of the State Online Monitoring System simultaneously with the adoption of the draft Law 2713-d.

We believe that these steps can significantly affect the functioning of the industry and provide much more benefit to the state than imposing restrictions or completely banning legal gambling. We hope that the position of representatives of the Ukrainian Gambling Council will be heard and taken into account when making relevant decisions by representatives of government institutions.