Ukrainian Gambling Licensing

The Ukrainian Gambling Industry Association was created in 1998, as a means to support developing gambling in the country. Its only purpose was to support development, and coordinate the gambling businesses as well as its members. In 2005, the UGIA became a member of the Council of Entrepreneurs.

The president of the UGIA says that gambling in the Ukraine has no structure and is strife with corruption. Serhiy Tretyakov said, “In 2000 the government introduced licensing of gambling places. Between 2000 and 2006 not a single document was issued that would at least somehow regulate gaming. Not a single document for six years!”

He says that it is better for the government to keep it “in the shadows” for this way they can install slot machines anywhere they want to. He said children play the slot machines as much as they want with no government control of the situation. The Kyiv mayor has recently passed licensing that will cost an arm and a leg, and Tretyakov believes it is all a show. He said, “Taking into account the actions of the Kyiv mayor, this ‘putting everything in order’ looks more like destroying the legal business. And the illegal businesses – those people that do not have any licenses – are feeling very well.”

He said the administration does not give out the documents that people need to get regulated, and then asks for them – just as another way of holding them up when they are trying to start a legal business. He said you cannot have a slot machine that is legal, but it is very easy to have illegal slot machines instead.

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