For more than half a year - from the first reading of the draft law 9256-d in the parliament and until its adoption on 4 December 2024 - some lawmakers assured representatives of the gambling market and the public that "everyone will finally play by the same rules and there will be no exceptions for lotteries". As soon as the results of the voting were displayed in the Rada, some deputies, having changed their rhetoric, hastened to declare that the requirements for lotteries were tightened with the adoption of 9256-d. Unification in the industry and equal and binding conditions for the entire gambling sector are no longer in question.
What happened and what consequences will the legislative changes have for gambling, which, unfortunately, did not lead to the formation of a unified regulatory policy in the gambling market and de facto fixed the current state of affairs, when lotteries have an exclusive position with all the risks and troubles for both the domestic gambling business and the state budget of Ukraine?
It happened as usual: the professional community's comments on the risks to the development and stable operation of the gambling market due to the adoption of regular amendments to the legislation without taking into account the presence of a separate lottery business were ignored during the preparation of the draft law from the first to the second reading.
As a result, we have the following:
- restrictions on advertising brands and services that are legally imposed on gambling business organisers do not apply to the lottery sector, meaning that lotteries have full freedom of action;
- no increase in licence fees for lottery operators;
- there is no need to comply with special conditions for offline establishments that exist for casinos, bookmakers, slot machine halls, etc.
How will this affect the further development of gambling in Ukraine and what should be done to improve the situation? First of all, it is necessary to develop and adopt new regulations that would clearly regulate the activities of all gambling market participants without exception. In other words, lotteries should be recognised as gambling, as it is done in all civilised countries.
The new regulatory institutions that will govern the gambling market should be given full powers to ensure compliance with the new rules and regulations by business entities.
Why is this so important? Because when there are no fair conditions, it can lead to some market participants gaining advantages and others being at a disadvantage. This can reduce the overall competitiveness of the industry and contribute to the growth of the shadow sector, which will also have a negative impact on state budget revenues from both licence fees and taxes: both will be less when the white market loses to the black market due to artificially created unfair conditions for legal companies.
Another important disadvantage due to the special conditions for lottery operators is a decrease in the interest of investors in the domestic gambling market, who will consider it unstable or non-transparent. This may negatively affect the development of the industry as a whole.
Let me remind you that the "peculiarity of the conditions" is not only in the specific rules for lottery operators, but also in the fact that the emergence of new players in this market is made impossible by the requirement for a new operator to "have at least three years of experience in issuing and conducting state lotteries"! And a potential investor, seeing such a provision in the law, will definitely decide for himself that it is better not to even try to enter such an opaque market.
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