Finance Ministry Offers to Legalize Gambling in Ukraine

The Finance Ministry has published a bill on gambling in Ukraine, promoting the legalization and regulation of land-based and online sportsbooks and casinos.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance has released their plans for the regulation and legalization of casinos and bookmakers. They propose the set-up of a National Service that would oversee the economic operation and implement Ukraine’s gambling policy. Furthermore, the new body would be in charge of allocating licenses to land-based and online casinos in Ukraine.

A rough preview of regulated gambling in Ukraine

They outline specific requirements to the land-based casinos, including a set number of equipment and employees. According to the document, the latter should depend on the unit’s location. The license-fee would be between EUR 300,000-1 million for land-based, and EUR 1,5 million for online casinos. The document also suggests a single operator for the Ukrainian lottery market. The new body would hold a tender to choose this operator.

”This is an option we cannot afford to ignore.”

In September, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Prime Minister of Ukraine said that “the government wishes to review current legislation and the possibility of bringing gambling back to Ukraine.” He said that the regulated gambling market should be modeled on other countries’ practices. He highlighted three potential benefits to legal gambling in Ukraine: "the effect on jobs will be immediate, the increase in tourism will benefit the country as a whole and the income from taxes will greatly assist our reform measures.”