Ukraine’s one type of legal gambling is set for a shake up as the parliament attempts to siphon more money from the industry. State-run lotteries are one of the few types of gambling currently allowed in the country. This won’t change. “The Draft Law on State Lotteries in Ukraine,” put forward in June 9 is simply looking to exploit the market further.
Accompanying the bill were notes arguing that the sector is “underdeveloped” compared with other European nations. It went on to explain that tightening state controls would mean around $2.65bn in revenues over four years and the creation of 25,000 new jobs.
Legal expert Pavlo Byelousov last week told GamblingCompliance that the measures were necessary, commenting, “The need to have regulation over the lottery activities is obvious. Certainly, it is preferable to have a single act providing complex and unified regulation for both lottery and gambling activities.”
There are currently four groups licensed to operate lotteries in the country and all of those are set to expire by 2013. The largest of these are the Ukrainian National Lottery and MSL LLC, and they’re also the most active. CJSC Patriot and OJSC State Savings Bank of Ukraine are the other two operators and they contract private companies to run their businesses.
Ukraine’s hard line against gambling has been plain to see over the past few months and follows a number of major crackdowns on online gambling following legislation that was introduced just last year. With Euro 2012 coming up, they could see huge benefits from the gambling industry. The authorities don’t seem to see this as a viable option though
