The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine made changes to the resolution "Some issues of counteracting the negative consequences of gambling on the Internet." The decision provides for a complete ban on gambling advertising.
This is stated in the government resolution.
The Cabinet of Ministers added clarifications to the first subparagraph of the resolution, which previously established restrictions on the distribution of gambling advertisements, trademarks and other objects under which gambling is conducted, in particular with the use of electronic communications, the symbols of the Armed Forces or other military formations, as well as the distribution of relevant contextual material
Now the order of restriction applies to all forms of advertising, and the restriction involves a ban.
On May 17, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted additional regulation for the gambling business, in particular, it prohibited the use of military symbols in the advertising of gambling games, and also obliged the organizers to introduce limits on funds and time for players.
The situation with the gaming business in Ukraine
In July 2020 , the Verkhovna Rada legalized the gambling business in Ukraine. The law legalizes the activities of casinos, bookmakers (in particular on the Internet), slot machine halls and the organization of online poker. The parliament included roulette, playing cards, dice and slot machines as casino gambling. In September 2020, the Parliament created the Gambling and Lottery Regulatory Commission (KRAIL) — this is a state regulator that deals with the licensing and regulation of gambling in Ukraine.
In 2023, Ukrainians spent almost 400 million hryvnias in online casinos every day, or more than 12 billion a month, as reported by Economic Truth with reference to the National Bank. This industry most often affects military personnel, who then suffer from gambling addiction.
After this publication, lively discussions of the problem with gambling began in society, in particular among the military. On March 29, an electronic petition appeared on the website of the Office of the President of Volodymyr Zelenskyi about restricting the operation of online casinos during martial law in Ukraine. In just a few hours , the petition gathered the 25,000 signatures required for its consideration by the president.
The author of the petition, Pavlo Petrychenko, a soldier of the 59th brigade, claimed that there are rare cases when soldiers 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.
On April 20, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a decree restricting the operation of online casinos.
- At the end of April, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office reported that more than 2,500 websites were blocked in Ukraine, which provided gambling and hosted online casino resources without a corresponding license.