Government efforts towards the lifting of an existing gambling ban that was established in 2009 and which basically “outlawed” any kind of gambling activity in the territory of Ukraine (both land based and online) were finally successful and the “Act on the state regulation of activities related to organization and conduct of gambling” was adopted in the country’s parliament on July, 14, 2020 (“Gambling Law”). Bearing in mind that the draft of the Gambling Law that was initially presented in the parliament had more than 1500 amendment proposals, the final result is somewhat different from the initial one whereby the intention to have special gaming zones in the country remained.
As the most interesting change it can be pointed out that the Gambling Law does not limit the number of licenses that can be granted nor does it establish any type of tendering procedures. Therefore, any applicant that fulfils the set-out requirements and pays the license fee can become a gambling operator. Gambling operator can conduct the gambling activity only under one brand whereby one operator may hold more licenses, as defined under Gambling Law. Requirements relate to the obligation of the applicant to be registered in Ukraine, to hold a minimum share capital of cca. 1 mio EUR and that a shareholder, owner, ultimate beneficial owner or an executive of a Ukrainian company applicant cannot be a Russian company or citizen and must not own, directly or indirectly, any company in Russia.
Gambling license is issued by the Gambling Commission whereby the Gambling Law defines six key types of licenses: (i) land-based casinos; (ii) land-based slot machine halls; (iii) land-based hippodrome pool betting; (iv) land-based and online betting; (v) online casinos; and (vi) online poker. Rights granted under a single license cannot be sold or transferred to another entity.
Regarding the land based i.e. brick & mortar casinos, the Gambling Law envisages an “investment license” for (i) individual projects approved by the Ukrainian Government for the gambling industry or (ii) construction of a 5-star hotel (with at least 200 rooms in Kyiv or 150 rooms in other cities) in which the casino will be situated.
Such investment license is issued for a 10-year period during which the investor/operator is exempt from paying the license fee.In respect of online gambling or casinos, additional conditions are imposed such as the requirement that the IT equipment and systems are located in Ukraine, that the website is registered on the national domain, electronical AML/KYC requirements to be fulfilled. It is worth mentioning that licensed operators are allowed to received bets from both Ukrainian non-residents and residents. Non-licensed online gambling in the territory of Ukraine is prohibited.
Article originally published in Casino Life Ukraine Issue 07 November 2021
DISCLAIMER: Law Firm Anđelović, Siketić & Tomić d.o.o. wish to avoid inaccuracies and, whilst every precaution has been taken to ensure that information contained in this report is accurate, no liability is accepted for errors or omissions, however caused
