It is very positive that finally, in the fifth year of the gambling market reform in Ukraine, even the biggest critics of gambling legalisation and the formation of a civilised gambling business system have started to recognise its necessity and positively assess the significant amounts of taxes that go to the state budget.
At the same time, the legal ban on advertising of gambling and betting companies introduced by the government had a significant and negative impact on the development of the legal gambling market and almost destroyed competition in it. Why? Because newly licensed market organisers were effectively deprived of the opportunity to convey information about themselves, their services and products to potential customers. As a result, the market's attractiveness to new players has significantly decreased. And such a reduction means a direct decrease in state budget revenues from both licence fees and taxation. It's simple: no new companies, no taxes.
But this is not the only negative consequence of the ban on legal gambling advertising. The ban on gambling advertising can have several consequences, besides the destruction of competition in the legal market. First of all, it leads to:
Growth of the illegal market, as the ban on advertising may encourage players to turn to illegal operators that are not subject to the law. This can lead to an increase in shadow gambling. In turn, the growth of the illegal market may lead to an increase in fraud and other gambling-related crimes.
Increased liability concerns, as without advertising from legal operators that typically offer responsible gambling practices, players may not be informed about the risks of gambling and how to play responsibly. Also, without advertising from legal operators (who are socially responsible), consumers may not be aware of the options available to them, which will affect their choices and behaviour.
Restricting innovation, as competition stimulates innovation in products and services. Banning advertising can lead to stagnation in the development of new technologies and games.
Job losses. Reduced competition and revenue may lead to job losses in the legal gambling sector.
Another problem inherent in the domestic gambling market is worth highlighting is the presence of a special cluster, the regulation of which does not even touch the general gambling legislation. We are talking about lotteries, which are not recognised as gambling in Ukraine, have a separate law on their activities and are not subject to any prohibitions on advertising their activities. Compared to gambling organisers, lottery operators pay much lower taxes, licence fees are insignificant, and there are no prohibitions and restrictions on business activities or the need to comply with special conditions. At the same time, lotteries manage to quietly imitate almost all types of gambling, and only the BES investigation into this matter has allowed to expose fraudulent schemes...
Therefore, it is worth noting once again: the gambling market should develop according to the same common rules for everyone, and the introduction of various restrictions and prohibitions should be based on national and public interests, and not provoke losses and troubles.
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