The legal gambling market means, first of all, high social responsibility of organisers and conscientious compliance with not only all legal requirements that regulate their activities, but also adherence to the principles of responsible gambling.
I would like to remind you that responsible gambling principles are the basic principles of interaction between gambling organisers and players aimed at preventing and minimising the negative consequences of excessive gambling.
Currently, the topic of gambling addiction (ludomania) is being actively discussed in the media, and the discussion about ludomania among the military is particularly lively. The President of Ukraine responded promptly by enacting the National Security and Defence Council's decision "On Counteracting the Negative Effects of Gambling on the Internet", which instructs the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the leadership of other military formations to immediately ban access to land-based gambling facilities and online casinos for military personnel.
However, the introduction of bans can only partially solve the problem of gambling addiction, because it is a very difficult task to divert resources to monitor every gambling addict in the army, and a positive result is not guaranteed, because a gambling addict is a person who is addicted to his or her addiction and needs not bans, but help and support in solving the problem of addiction. First of all, psychological support.
This support should be provided by specialists. And legal gambling business organisers can engage them and create conditions for such support to be effective and accessible to those suffering from gambling addiction.
I would like to note that social responsibility in the gambling industry is constantly growing, and one of the most striking examples of this has recently occurred - our Association members, Vbet and Favbet, opened the Space of Life Centre for Social and Psychological Support. This is a comprehensive specialised environment created to support Ukrainian citizens in solving both general emotional and psychological problems and directly addressing the issue of overcoming gambling addiction.
The mission of the space is to help people who have problems caused by gambling and their families, as well as to promote responsible gambling through educational and scientific outreach activities. The main values of the Space of Life are comprehensiveness, anonymity, professionalism and family orientation. All those who have a high level of stress can find help here: military personnel, veterans and combatants, internally displaced persons, etc.
I hope that other business representatives will join this initiative. Since gambling organisers should pay attention to player safety, prevention of gambling addiction, and protection of minors from access to gambling, they should promote the development of programmes and initiatives designed to help players solve gambling-related problems and do everything in their power to create a healthy and safe gambling environment.