At the beginning of February, ICE 2024, the largest event in the gambling business in the world, was held in London. It is an annual international gambling forum that unites the online and offline sectors.
As a representative of the Ukrainian Gambling Council, I had the honour to speak at the round table regarding the future functioning and prospects for the development of gambling markets in the Central and Eastern Europe.
I would like to point out that many technical issues were discussed during the round table, primarily because relatively new markets of Eastern Europe, in particular, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Romania, are in the stage of complete legalization and most of the issues have already been resolved.
This is their main difference from Ukraine, regarding which there is a large information vacuum and great interest at the same time. The interest is primarily from investors who, even in the conditions of war, continue to invest in the limitless potential of our market, and are interested in the prospects of its further development.
However, there are some aspects that discourage foreign companies from investing in Ukrainian projects. Perhaps the unregulated tax issues in the gambling sector constitute the most important problem. Unfortunately, issues related to the introduction of sanctions and seizure of the accounts of large Ukrainian operators such as Parimatch and Cosmolot, and the lack of clarity regarding these decisions, continue to be relevant.
Adoption by the parliament of draft Law No. 2713-д, which has long been expected by the industry, can remedy the situation and promote the strengthening of investors' interest in the Ukrainian gambling market.
This will lead to revealing the potential of Ukraine as a centre of European gambling. Moreover, this will be the best guarantee that populists like Tymoshenko or Hetmantsev will not be able to wind up the anti-corruption reform on the legalization of gambling, which was started by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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