Economy

Verkhovna Rada voted for the draft law against gambling: what are its shortcomings

The Verkhovna Rada has liquidated the Gambling Commission. A total of 239 MPs voted in favor of the decision, Komersant ukrainskyi reports with reference to parliament’s Telegram channel.

It is about the bill 9256-d. Its initiators were Daniel Hetmantsev, Victoria Kinzburskaya, Galina Vasilchenko, Robert Horvat, Anna Kolesnik, Boris Prikhodko, Alexander Sova and Yaroslav Zheleznyak.

According to the group of authors, the amendments to the legislation they proposed are aimed at combating gambling addiction.

“Adoption of the bill will improve the existing system of state regulation of gambling activities, limit aggressive gambling advertising, increase opportunities to protect potentially vulnerable categories of the population by introducing a new basis for inclusion in the Register of persons to whom access to gambling establishments and/or participation in gambling is restricted, as well as increase the payment discipline of licensees on timely payment of all mandatory payments,” the explanatory note says

What the draft law 9256-d proposes

Presented by a group of people’s elected representatives, the draft law proposes to:

• restrict casino advertising using symbols of the AFU and other military formations;
• prohibit the registration of several accounts for one player in online casinos;
• restrictions on business reputation of management and gambling operators;
• disabling and blocking illegal gambling sites;
• increase liability for gambling operators for violating the law;
• identify additional tools to restrict visits to gambling establishments and participation in gambling for potentially vulnerable categories of the population for the period of martial law;
• improve gambling business control tools;
• establish additional criteria for revocation of licenses, improve requirements for impeccable business reputation of officials of gambling organizers, establish requirements for gambling service providers.

Instead of the CRAIL it is proposed to form a new authorized body by April 1, 2025 and determine the ministry, which will form the policy in the field of gambling and lotteries.

In addition, the document prohibits gambling advertising. Exceptions: advertising on TV and radio at night, in media for people over 21 years old, on platforms and search engines with a target audience over 21 years old.

At the same time, a requirement is established: all non-cash payments by gambling organizers must be made exclusively through banks.

What preceded it

The start to changes in the work of the gambling industry was the appeal of a serviceman Pavel Petrichenko to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he voiced the problem of ludomania among the military.

on April 24, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading a draft law on improving state regulation of gambling and lotteries and fighting gambling addiction.

Why the draft law on gambling restrictions was criticized

Even at the stage of consideration of the bill by the working group, people’s Deputy Nina Yuzhanina drew attention to the fact that most of the speeches were not from the organizers of gambling, but from representatives of organizations that have money from this advertising.

“Their speeches gave the impression that gambling organizers are literally the saviors of sports, media, advertising campaigns and almost the whole country. The main messages: there will be no advertising (including sponsorship) – everyone will go into the shadows, there will be no broadcasting of sports competitions, and there will be no sports. I would like very much that the result of all the discussions was the creation of an effective mechanism not only to fight, but above all to prevent gambling addiction”, – said Yuzhanina.

The parliamentarian was not satisfied with the bill, which her colleagues voted for in the second reading.

Nina Yuzhanina believes that in fact the draft law is not really about restricting the gambling market, but about:

• changing the signage on the state bodies that regulate and control this market;
• detailing control measures for activities on the market and to combat illegal gambling;
• legalizing the possibility of conducting lotteries and gambling under brands owned by Russians before January 1, 2023 (even during a full-scale war);
• limiting (not banning) gambling advertising and sponsorship, with the most common advertising – online advertising – going nowhere.

“No significant market restriction is envisioned by this law, nor is there any change in approaches to preventing gambling addiction. Unfortunately,” summarized Yuzhanina.