Part of the criticism of legal gambling in Ukraine is the claim that the legal gambling sector has depleted its potential. This argument is increasingly heard in the public space, as claims that gambling does not pay taxes do not work against the background of multibillion-dollar revenues to the state budget.
Given that the gambling reform is still incomplete, it is at least manipulative to say that the legal gambling sector has depleted its potential, and in fact, it is simply ridiculous. How can something that has never worked at full capacity for objective reasons deplete its potential?
That is why this thesis about "depleted potential", which is increasingly being promoted by lottery players in the media space, seems to be another attempt to discredit the achievements of legal gambling organizers and CRGL, which, despite all the challenges, support the functioning of the market and provide revenues to the state budget.
So, in order to talk about exhausted or untapped potential, the first thing to do is to complete the reform. First, this means the adoption of tax legislation. I would like to remind you that the relevant draft law 2713-d has not yet been adopted due to the obstruction of individuals, including those in the political leadership, interested in supporting illegal immigrants. However, the situation for legal gambling will not change without it. It should be adopted at least in terms of streamlining legal terminology and, at most, introducing adequate tax rates. This will create appropriate conditions for the realization of the existing potential of the legal market.
Secondly, the issue of illegal immigrants must finally be resolved. Despite 2 years of war and a difficult economic situation, their number has not decreased. There is no systematic fight against them, and some politicians and public figures make statements that are openly favorable to illegal immigrants. By the way, the thesis about the "exhausted potential" of legal gambling is one of them.
Lotteries are also an important part of the discussion about illegal immigrants. They should finally be equated with gambling at the legislative level. After all, the issue of lotteries is still not regulated, and they are taking advantage of it. Modern technologies give them a number of opportunities to imitate gambling. Of course, they do this without having the appropriate licenses to organize and conduct gambling and without paying any license fees or taxes.
The importance of equating lotteries with gambling was recently emphasized by the head of CRGL Ivan Rudyi. He noted that the procedure for issuing lottery licenses should be the same as for all other types of gambling. It should also ensure that lotteries are engaged in lotteries, not imitation of gambling on their platforms.
Lotteries are essentially gambling as well, and it is not clear why they should be granted any privileged position by exploiting loopholes in the legislation. In addition, the lack of regulation of lotteries leads to the fact that they organize and conduct gambling on the same level as legal organizers, but do not purchase licenses, which has a very negative impact on the competitive environment. This further reduces the already limited potential of legal organizers, who, unfortunately, still operate despite the current regulatory and tax environment, not because of it.