By: Anton Kuchukhidze Chairman Ukrainian Gambling Council
Commission for Regulation of Gambling & Lotteries (CRGL), like no one else, understands the challenges faced today by the Ukrainian legal gambling market. CRGL came up with a draft legislative initiative to help businesses overcome these challenges and preserve the achievements of legalization. The key goal is to help licensees survive the war and save the industry for post-war recovery
Since Ukraine has been at war with Russia for almost half a year, the economy has suffered greatly. Gambling is no exception. Most land-based gambling representatives had to close their halls and casinos. Online companies also had to reformat their businesses, cut costs, and even relocate entire IT teams within the country or abroad.
Image: Anton Kuchukhidze Chairman Ukrainian Gambling Council
The current situation has put most achievements of the gambling legalization reform at risk. And if six months ago we talked about what needs to be done to develop the market, today we are doing everything for it to exist.
The great advantage is that the national regulator understands the magnitude of the situation. From the beginning of the war, the Commission for Regulation of Gambling & Lotteries has clearly stated its position to support legal gambling in Ukraine. CRGL backs its words with concrete actions.
The Commission recently took a crucial step in this direction by proposing a draft legislative initiative to preserve the legal gambling market in Ukraine. The draft proposes to address two key issues faced by legal operators: settlement of the license-fee payment and liability for non-payment during martial law.
For instance, the draft initiative proposes to give licensees the right to apply to CRGL for suspension of licenses for a period of martial law. The license-suspension period will not be included in its validity period, meaning that legal operators will not pay any license fees during the suspension period.
The draft initiative also proposes to exempt companies from liability for non-payment of license fees in the form of license revocation for the period of martial law and 30 days afterward. That is, companies will have the right not to pay license fees and will not worry about spending time and money on lawsuits after the end of martial law.
At the same time, for the license-suspension period, companies will not have the right to organize and conduct gambling. That is, the key objective of this initiative is to remove the additional financial burden on companies and their legal liability. This initiative will in no way help legal operators “make more money,” as some opponents of legalization have already stated.
The project proposed by CRGL will significantly reduce the financial burden on legal gambling and allow operators to save resources for the post-war restart of their business. I hope it will receive due support at the state level and will be soon implemented.
***This article was originally published in August 2022 in Casino Life Issue 152 Brother title to Casino Life Ukraine***
