The United States of America is certainly an example in many economic areas, and gambling is no exception. What we can definitely learn from them is the ability to quickly build efficient economic processes and adapt regulatory policies to the needs of the private sector. This is the approach that ensures rapid economic development and growth of the population's welfare. One of the most recent examples of such a policy at the highest level is President Trump's meeting with representatives of the gambling business.
Imagine the volume and number of tasks that the President of the United States has to deal with on a daily basis. Now think about how difficult it is to prioritise these tasks. However, President Trump has already managed to meet with representatives of the gambling business in the first couple of weeks of his term. Undoubtedly, this indicates that the presidential administration considers this sector to be very important for the US economy.
And if you look at the statistics, it seems quite logical. The total revenue of the US gambling industry in 2024 was about $67 billion. In the third quarter of last year alone, the industry generated $17.71 billion in revenue. This was primarily due to the active growth of the online gambling sector, which accounted for 29% of total revenue. Moreover, the intensive growth of profits has been observed for the fourth year in a row.
From the point of view of Ukrainian lawmakers who are trying to regulate the gambling sector as much as possible, what should be done with this industry? That's right - to impose additional taxes on legal organisers. Unfortunately, usually, for example, in European countries, the authorities are very good at imposing additional bans on legal businesses and inventing new taxes and fees. And that's right. It does not work and does not contribute to the development of the industry.
In the US, the approach is completely different, and Trump's recent meeting with gambling representatives at CircaResort and Casino in Las Vegas demonstrated this. The main issue of the meeting was the tax reform of the industry aimed at reducing the tax burden on gambling organisers. The key idea of the reform is to allow legal organisers, which are large employers in the US, to increase payments to their employees and expand their business, thus creating new jobs both in their industry and in related ones.
The meeting also discussed the priority of combating illegal operators and increasing the number of initiatives aimed at promoting the principles of responsible gambling.
Of course, the gambling industry is much more developed in the US than in Ukraine, both in terms of the economic environment and regulatory and tax legislation. Nevertheless, the issues faced by the market are the same: tax legislation, the fight against illegal operators and the promotion of responsible gambling.
However, what we should definitely learn from the United States is how to solve these problems. While we are focused on prohibitions and restrictions, in the US, on the contrary, everything is based on dialogue with business and creating favourable conditions for legal business organisers. Why is this so? In fact, the answer is very simple - it is the economic effect of market liberalisation. The more you give legal businesses opportunities for development, the faster the industry grows. The faster it grows, the more taxes and other fees the state budget receives from it and from the related industries with which it interacts. Therefore, if the state is interested in receiving real benefits from gambling, it should adapt this approach instead of the Soviet "regulate and limit everything" approach.
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