Ukraine must be one of the few countries in the world where they openly promote the idea of visiting the site of the most notorious nuclear disaster in modern history. If you couple this with the fact that they deem the site at Chernobyl to be a lot safer than gambling, you have to sit up and check whether you’ve been smoking a bit too much medical marijuana. Don’t want to be advocating the use of normal marijuana – it’s a whole lot worse you see.
Russia’s neighbours find themselves in a difficult situation. After copying the big brother they never had, unfortunately their government changed several times. As their neighbour created gambling zones, Ukraine’s hands were tied – no gambling zones, just nothing as far as gambling’s concerned. All they have is some circus animals with too many limbs and Chernobyl.
This could all change should a report by legal firm Vasil Kisil & Partners be believed. Following the 2010 presidential elections, the newly elected government has taken upon themselves to prepare draft gambling laws for the country.
According to an article on Casinos-Online.co.uk, Vasil Kisil & Partners have studied the law in detail, and report it effectively maintains the ban on internet gambling and bookmaking, whilst supporting the idea of a state monopoly running gambling through a National Gambling Organiser. The NGO is to be a wholly state-owned enterprise that carries out activities related to organising and conducting gambling games. Private gambling operators may be engaged in business activities related to conducting gambling games organised by the NGO…but only based on a licence and an agreement concluded with the NGO.
No online gambling will be a blow to many, and is likely to drive it underground much like has happened in other restrictive regimes. The legislation also includes supporting the idea of a state monopoly, something that won’t go down well with many around Europe and will effectively close off Ukraine to investment by larger companies with Europe-wide operations.
The European Union is unlikely to act, as the country isn’t part of the EU. With the European Championships in soccer less than two years away, Ukraine could do a lot worse than opening up the online market in the country, to generate funding for the tournament. Obviously, they think tours around Chernobyl will give them enough money though. They might give you a little something extra – it’s not likely to be monetary though.
