The initiator of the gambling business legalization in Ukraine was personally Vladimir Zelensky. According to the president, slot machines and casinos have already been operating in the country for many years while the law will force them to pay taxes and stimulate the development of a tourism cluster in the Black Sea region. The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the second reading a bill that will legalize the gambling business in Ukraine already in 2020.
Let’s talk about the main points of the adopted law – how now Ukrainians can legally participate in gambling. We also will talk about the pitfalls of the document.
10 Main Points Of The Adopted Law On Gambling Business In Ukraine
- It will be possible to gamble for people who have turned 21 years old. They will need to be identified. It is also planned to create player rosters. Although they will not be created immediately.
- There is a concept of “self-restraint” in the law – game addicts will have to write a statement (or at least put their signature under it), in which they will give their consent to their non-admission to gambling establishments. The players’ relatives can also initiate the ban, including through the courts. But those who suffer from gambling addiction will still have to give their consent to the restrictions.
- The slot halls can be placed on the territory of 3-5 star hotels. Hotels should have at least 50 rooms for Kyiv and 25 for other settlements. The license cost will be about $ 250,000. In addition, you will need to pay about $ 100 for each machine per month.
- Casinos are permitted in five-star hotels or special gaming areas. The license costs about $ 2 million for Kyiv and a million dollars for other settlements in Ukraine.
- Bookmakers will be able to work both online and offline. Bookmakers should only be located in hotels (3-5 stars) or at the racetrack. The license price is about a million dollars, for each separate office you will have to pay $ 500 per month.
- For those who organize and conduct lotteries, there are three licenses. The cost of each is 500 thousand dollars.
- Online casinos and online poker are allowed. License cost – about 200 thousand for each site.
- Poker clubs can only be sports clubs. It will be allowed to play poker for money in casinos.
- It is allowed to create special play areas. Free investment casino licenses are provided for ten years, subject to the construction of a hotel with 150-200 rooms.
- A new structure will be created – the State Commission for the Regulation of the Gambling Market, consisting of 7 people. It will issue licenses, monitor and control this market.
Centralized monitoring of all gambling establishments is also planned, which will allow controlling turnovers and “seeing” all players. But it won’t appear until 2022.
Pitfalls Of The Law On The Legalization Of Gambling Business
The draft law on the legalization of the gambling business in Ukraine turned out to be very controversial. After the first reading, about 3.5 thousand amendments were received to the document, most of which were ignored before the second reading.
What Gambling Experts Think
Experts believe that operators of the gambling market will promptly legalize their business. According to experts, many companies, even on the eve of the adoption of the law, bought equipment, imported slot machines.
And in the Tatarbunarsky district of the Odessa region, they intend to launch a whole play area “Danube”. It will include casinos and hotels of various levels. The resort will be located on a spit between Sasyk Lake and the Black Sea. More than 500 hectares, the embankment is more than 10 kilometers. More than 80 hotels, the smallest with 150 rooms, and the largest with 1,000 rooms, wrote on his Facebook page the chairman of the board of the Odessa region tourism association Fazel Askerov.
Another important point that experts pay attention to is that the online monitoring module for casinos and slot machine halls will not appear immediately, but only from 2022.
The gambling world has long waited for a law on the legalization of casinos to be adopted in Ukraine. So, he has been working for a long time in neighboring countries: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, as well as in many European countries. It is expected that representatives of the gambling business, such as Michael Boettcher’s Shangri La by Storm International, expected that Ukraine would come to a worldwide practice. It has long been known from the experience of other countries that the ban on the gambling industry simply drives businesses underground and worsens the situation with the law.
Now experts are watching with interest the re-creation of the gambling industry, which has been banned for over 11 years. The CEO of Storm International, Darren Keane, expects that some of the Ukrainian employees of the holding, working in foreign units, will return home. That is, Ukrainian casinos will already be provided with qualified personnel.
One of the advantages of legalizing casinos is the development of Ukraine: the creation and improvement of tourist zones, impressive revenues from the gambling business, thousands of high-paying jobs, high-quality entertainment for fans of the industry.
The complexes of Shangri La, Darren Keane noted, are creating full-fledged recreational areas. And this is not the only gambling operator that works on this principle. And high-quality gambling complexes attract VIP guests from different countries, which will also be useful for Ukraine.
Tags: Casinos In Hotels, Gambling Business, Player Registers And Cash
