On the website of the Office of the President of Volodymyr Zelensky today, March 29, an electronic petition appeared on the website of the online casino during the martial law in Ukraine.
In a few hours, the petition collected the 25 000 signatures required for its consideration by the president, and the number of signatures continues to grow.
The author of the petition is Pavlo Petrychenko, a soldier of the 59th brigade. He proposes to ban the following:
- access to online casinos for military personnel;
- advertising of gambling games using the symbols of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and in general symbols of war or the army, as well as advertising or public references to how casinos give aid to the military;
- cooperation of charitable funds with participants of the gaming market;
- to accept property in the form of charitable assistance from the casino or individuals or legal entities related to it for military units;
- pawnshops accept drones, thermal imagers and other dual purpose goods.
At the same time, the author demands that Internet providers and mobile operators block the sites of illegal casinos.
Pavlo Petrychenko argues for this by the fact that there are rare cases when military men addicted to games spend all their money on casinos and then take microloans, driving themselves into a debt pit. They also pawn drones and thermal imagers, which harms not only them, but also their fellow citizens.
"Gaming businesses take advantage of this vulnerability by deliberately targeting military personnel, using symbols of the Armed Forces in online casinos, and whitewashing their activities with small charitable donations to the Armed Forces," the author added.
- In 2023, Ukrainians spent almost 400 million hryvnias in online casinos every day, or more than 12 billion a month, as reported by "European Truth" with reference to the National Bank. This industry most often affects military personnel, who then suffer from "ludomania" (gambling addiction).