As I mentioned earlier, this document appeared without communication with business. This is not surprising, as the draft law 9256-d was created in a hurry and has nothing in common with the draft law 9256 submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in May 2023.
Draft law 9256-d contains provisions designed to destroy the legal gambling business and return the gambling market to the monopoly ownership of lottery operators. It will bring us back to the period of "instant lottery" halls at every intersection, total corruption, and minimal budget revenues. These are the provisions that Mr. Hetmantsev unsuccessfully tried to push through last October in draft law No. 10101.
Now is the right time to repeat the attempt. The draft law, which was cynically presented as a fight against corruption and a solution to the problem of gambling addiction among the military, actually aims to achieve four main competitive advantages for lottery operators:
1. Prohibit advertising of gambling business organizers, leaving advertising for lottery operators (let me remind you that currently, M.S.L. LLC is engaged in activities that completely imitate sports betting, and the Ukrainian National Lottery has focused on imitating online casinos).
2. Removing lottery operators from the jurisdiction of the uncontrolled CRGL to the "central executive body that implements state policy in the field of lotteries".
There, monopoly lottery operators will ensure the adoption of comfortable license conditions and will finally be able to exist in peace. Without online cash flow control, unlike gambling with their SOMSs. Without the strict conditions and restrictions set for gambling. With ten times lower license fees compared to gambling. With minimal taxes that lottery operators used to pay until 2020.
3. Providing lottery operators with the opportunity to legalize illegal online casinos under the guise of lottery distribution websites. Hypothetical x-bet will easily reach an agreement with one of three private lottery operators to launch an online casino in Ukraine.
4. Preventing international business leaders from entering the lottery and gambling markets of Ukraine. The lottery monopoly was lobbied for by the relevant law in 2012, but to consolidate it, it is not enough to adopt the license conditions that lobbyists are now pushing so hard. And the gambling market will finally close due to discriminatory requirements for gambling organizers in addition to the existing problems with uncertainty of taxation.
Mr. Hetmantsev announced that an open working group on the draft law will be held with the participation of all interested parties.
Holding a meeting of the working group by the main consistent lobbyist of lottery operators is a complete manipulation and a desire to legitimize their own interests at the expense of the general public.
I consider my presence inappropriate at an event that is aimed not at the public interests of the relevant committee, but at the private interests of the head of this committee.
Conscious citizens must unite to eliminate risks to the existence of the legal gambling market, one of the most powerful and successful reforms of 2019. Yes, there is still a lot of work to be done, but it would be a crime to destroy what has already been done.
The achievements of the reform should not be tarnished by the lottery lobby.
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