Parliamentary committee backs measures strengthening gambling oversight

The Parliamentary Finance Committee supported measures that would impose stricter oversight of the gambling industry in Ukraine, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on April 4.

The negative social impacts of gambling are increasingly becoming a topic of public discussion as a petition demanding restrictions on online gambling was registered on the website of the President's Office in March. In response, President Volodymyr Zelensky tasked authorities to tighten control over the online gambling industry.

The committee supported a bill that included the liquidation of the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries and passing its responsibilities to the Digital Transformation Ministry.

Other measures included further restrictions on online gambling games, a ban on advertising, finding tools to safeguard particularly vulnerable categories of the population, and tightening business control measures.

The bill also proposes guidelines and conditions for cancelling licenses, as well as other steps to lift the standards of gambling enterprises.

The draft law was submitted to the parliament back in May 2023.

Gambling was officially banned in Ukraine in 2009 until its legalization in 2020.

In the first two months of 2024, the gambling business in Ukraine paid Hr 2.2 billion ($56 million) in taxes, and Hr 10.4 billion ($267 million) in 2023, according to Danylo Hetmantsev, the chairman of the parliamentary Finance Committee.

Zelensky says government to tighten control over online gambling

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on April 2 that the government is preparing to tighten control over the online gambling industry “and help protect the interests of the society.”

The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Hodunova