What's New on the Ukrainian Gambling Market? News Digest

Who has taken the last available position in the gambling regulator team? How many tournaments are included in the Ukrainian of Online Poker Cup? How much operators are interested in conducting gambling business on the Ukrainian market? And what draft resolutions related to the regulation of gambling activities has been published by the Cabinet of Ministers? Read more about the latest events on the Ukrainian gambling market in the weekly digest.

The Ukrainian government has chosen all members of the gambling regulator

On November 11, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed the last four members of the Commission for regulation of gambling activities and lotteries. They are Tetyana Kyryenko, Khrystyna Dutka-Gefko, Yuriy Kravchenko and Oleksiy Botezat.

According to the Cabinet Minister Oleh Nemchynov, a total of 312 candidates applied for vacant positions. Only 51 people were admitted to the interview.

In September 2020, the government adopted a decree on the creation of a collegial body in Ukraine that would regulate the activities of gambling operators. In October, Ivan Rudyi was elected head of the commission. At the same time, the first two members of the regulatory body were determined - Olena Vodolazhko and Yevhen Hetman.

According to the law on the legalization of gambling, the responsibilities of the regulator will include the development of licensing conditions for the organization of gambling, licensing of operators, consideration of complaints from players, determining the procedure for inspecting equipment, etc.

Ukrainian Online Poker Cup kicked off at PokerMatch

Ukrainian Online Poker Cup will run from November 6 to November 29. The competition is held on the PokerMatch platform with the support of the All-Ukrainian Federation of Sports Poker. A total of 121 unlimited hold’em and Chinese poker tournaments will take place within this event. The buy-in volume in games starts from 1 UAH, and the guarantee is up to 1 million UAH. The total amount of the prize fund is 25 mn hryvnias.

As part of the championship, five tournaments are held daily, two of them are of a training nature. Participants of title tournaments compete for Cups of different cities of Ukraine – Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Kherson etc.

The Unity Cup will be held on the last day of the championship as well. The buy-in of the tournament will be only one hryvnia, and the guarantee is 100,000 UAH.

In addition, the championship has two leaderboards. The total prize fund for each is 300,000 UAH. Money will be distributed among the players with the most points.

Davyd Arakhamia spoke about the interest in the Ukrainian gambling market from potential licensees

Head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia said that currently Commission for regulation of gambling activities and lotteries has already received several dozen applications from persons interested in running a gambling business on the Ukrainian market. They are requesting information on the license terms ask to be queued for receiving a license. They also express their willingness to pay the required contributions.

At the same time, Arakhamia noted that right now the MPs do not have time to adopt the bill that amends the Tax Code in terms of taxation of gambling business. Despite this, some gambling operators are already ready to buy a license, while others, on the contrary, are waiting for all the conditions for doing business to become clear in order to enter the market in 2021.

According to the politician, the law on the legalization of gambling has become an incentive for the development of the hotel industry. There is already a certain boom in this area due to the fact that it was allowed to open casinos in hotels. He also noticed that international hotel chains are entering the Ukrainian market.

The Cabinet of Ministers has published draft resolutions on the approval of licensing conditions for running a gambling business

Three draft resolutions have been published on the government’s website. A regulatory impact analysis from the gambling regulator was provided for each document.

The first draft outlines new licensing conditions for the issuance and conduct of lotteries. The document contains a list of requirements for operators and a list of documents that business entities will have to submit in order to participate in the competition for obtaining the necessary license. In the analysis of the regulatory impact, it is noted that the adoption of this project will create a mechanism for the competitive selection of state lottery operators, establish requirements for licensees and achieve other goals.

The second draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers defines licensing requirements for persons who organize gambling in land-based and online casinos, betting shops, on online betting platforms, in slot machine halls, and also conduct online poker games. The document states that the decree will enter into force on the day of its publication, with the exception of provisions that relate to the certification of gambling equipment and the state system of online monitoring.

And the third draft resolution lists the licensing conditions for the provision of services in the field of organizing and conducting gambling activities. The document contains requirements for companies that supply and/or provide software used in the gambling industry.

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