Info Sapience research agency held the public opinion survey on the attitude of Ukrainians to gambling in February 2022, actually on the eve of armed hostilities. The war affected the process of public presentation of the survey and extended the time for processing the data. That is why we present the results of this opinion survey only now. It was held from 2 to 22 February 2022. The results are as follows:
1. Ukrainians remain a non-playing nation (non-gambling nation). The absolute majority of Ukrainians (92.8%) said they had no personal experience of real money gambling in the last 12 months. And only 8.2% of the polled would like to try at least one type of gambling in the future. We see a clear trend of gambling in Ukrainian society. Let us remind that in October 2021 only 7.2% of citizens of Ukraine would like to be involved at least in one type of gambling.
2. In the future, Ukrainians would like to gamble in the following ways: betting in bookmaker companies – 4.6% of the polled, casinos – 3.8%, online casinos – 3.3%, slot machines – 3.3% and playing online poker for money - 3.2% of the polled.
3. The following indicator is another confirmation that the offline gambling business considered a foreign tourist as its main consumer: only 5.4% of Ukrainians have heard of the opening of a legal gambling house or casino or slot machine hall in their local area. This is a very low percentage for the local population in order to bring big profits to gambling organizers. This statistics show a certain coolness in the attitude of the local population to gambling and shows that foreigners were still the main consumers for these gambling halls.
4. Public policy and communication strategies of legal gambling organizers to informing about safe participation in gambling are quite effective. One third of respondents know or have heard about state mechanisms for protection against ludomania (gambling addiction). We see that the awareness of the population about the existence of state protection mechanisms is several times greater than the desire to gamble.
REFERENCE
UGC is an all-Ukrainian specialized gambling public association seeking to unite the entire legal gambling industry to ensure sustainable and effective development of the gambling business in Ukraine. UGC acts as the main platform for communication between the State and the entire legal gambling industry. Today, the number of UGC members is 22 legal gambling operators, gambling organizations and media representatives.