The Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries is working on the gambling industry’s comprehensive recovery and development. In particular, CRGL is doing its best to launch the State Online Monitoring System (DSOM) required to increase the transparency of financial transactions in the industry and attract Western investors. However, not everything depends on CRGL.
Sometimes it seems to me that a lot of people in Ukraine want CRGL to cease existing. The Commission constantly suffers from undeserved criticism and numerous manipulations concerning its activities.
At the very least, it is illogical since CRGL does its best to ensure the functioning of the Ukrainian legal gambling market in extremely difficult times of war. For instance, the Commission continues to produce funds for the state budget. In less than 11 months of 2022, CRGL provided more than UAH 857 million in license fees to the state budget and contributed to attracting more than UAH 146 million in taxes.
The Commission continues the fight against illegal gambling and takes legislative initiatives to simplify the work of legal gambling operators. It also works on introducing DSOM to systematize GGR accounting and make it more transparent. However, since most public authorities are reluctant to introduce it, sometimes it seems that only CRGL needs it.
For instance, in his recent interview, Ivan Rudyi, the Chairman of CRGL, said that the Commission was ready to launch the DSOM nine months ago. The Commission did all the preparatory work, namely, developed the system and sent it for review to all central authorities for them to take a look and propose the required changes. However, the Commission did not receive any feedback. Today, CRGL has a technical solution for launching the system but failed to agree on it with the relevant authorities and receive funding for the project.
For my part, I would like to note that we, as a specialized association, have sent many appeals to the relevant public authorities, trying to explain three simple advantages of the DSOM introduction.
1. DSOM is the key system aimed at monitoring the activities of gambling operators by public authorities. That is, this tool is the basis for a transparent gambling market accountable to the State.
2. DSOM provides a great deal of control over every bet, withdrawal of winnings, and every transaction made with a legal gambling operator. A monitoring system which can provide a similar level of transparency is one of the key requirements for Western investors when assessing the market investment attractiveness.
3. In addition to monitoring bets and withdrawals of winnings, DSOM is also an effective tool for protecting gamblers’ rights and minimizing the spread of gambling addiction. DSOM is a kind of safeguard for gamblers from the illegal actions of gambling operators. The system helps check whether the gambler made a bet, whether the slot machine is connected to the system, whether it pays winnings correctly, etc.
DSOM, as well as the adoption of the relevant tax draft law 2713-d, is an integral part of establishing a modern gambling market in Ukraine. Thus, its launch is not a matter of time or desire of certain public authorities to introduce it, but a crucial step to be taken as soon as possible.
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