On March 25, the government decided to liquidate the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRGL). Its powers will be carried out by the state agency “PlayCity”, which was created on March 21.
This was reported by the permanent representative of the government in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk.
The government created a commission to liquidate the regulator and made appropriate changes to the Cabinet of Ministersʼ documents. The State Agency "PlayCity" received the property, rights and obligations of CRGL. In 2025, the agency will be financed within the budget of the liquidated Gambling Commission.
PlayCity will operate under the coordination of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which will control the gambling and lottery market. The agencyʼs main tasks are:
- digitalize licensing to ensure transparent rules for all market participants;
- implement mechanisms to control and combat illegal casinos;
- increase tax revenues from legal gambling to 10 billion hryvnias per year, which will go to the needs of the Defense Forces;
- fight casinos with a Russian footprint.
The parliament decided to eliminate CRGL and transfer the functions of regulating gambling to the Ministry of Digital Economy in December 2024. It was decided to automate licenses in order to remove the human factor from the process and reduce corruption.
The situation with the gambling business in Ukraine
In July 2020, the Verkhovna Rada legalized gambling in Ukraine. The law legalizes the activities of casinos, bookmakers, including online, slot machine halls, and the organization of online poker. The parliament included roulette, card games, dice, and slot machines as casino gambling. In September 2020, the parliament created the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRGL) — a state regulator that is responsible for licensing and regulating the gambling sector in Ukraine.
In 2023, Ukrainians spent almost 400 million hryvnias in online casinos every day, or over 12 billion per month, as Economic Truth reported with reference to the National Bank. The military is most often hit by this industry, who then suffer from gambling addiction.
After this publication, lively discussions began in society about the problem of gambling, in particular among the military. An electronic petition appeared to restrict the operation of online casinos during martial law in Ukraine, which gathered the necessary votes for its consideration in a few hours.
On April 20, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree restricting the operation of online casinos. In May of the same year, the Cabinet of Ministers completely banned the advertising of gambling.
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