It officially started in Ukraine act The Association of Ukrainian Gaming Business Operators (AUOGB) is an independent self-regulatory organization that has united the leading licensed market participants.
The association covers a significant part of the market: its members pay more than 10 billion hryvnias in taxes every year. The key goal of creating the association is to reboot the field of gambling, establish transparent and clear rules of the market, as well as actively fight against the illegal gambling business, in particular with online casinos originating from the Russian Federation.
The initiators of the association emphasize the need for honest interaction between the industry and the state. They are convinced that thanks to the joint actions of market participants and new regulatory bodies – the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the PlayCity agency – it is possible to gradually restore public trust, create a new business environment and improve the rules of the industry.
According to the information of the working group of the AOUGB, more than 50 illegal online casinos are still operating in the Ukrainian segment of the Internet, due to the activities of which the state loses more than 5 billion hryvnias in tax revenues every year. A significant part of these resources pretend to be Ukrainian companies, but are actually controlled from the territory of the Russian Federation and do not have the appropriate licenses.
Oleksandr Kogut was elected president of the association. According to him, the industry needs rethinking, complete renewal and new approaches to doing business.
“There is an entire IT pipeline for the launch of “fake” and unlicensed online casinos, which harms both the state, honest operators, and Ukrainians: they do not pay taxes, personal data of Ukrainians is at risk, and the income of shadow operators indirectly goes to the budget of the Russian Federation.” – explained Kohut.
It will be recalled that in February the Cabinet of Ministers transferred the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of gambling and lotteries from KRAIL to the Ministry of Digital Policy. In March, the government created the PlayCity state agency, which will be responsible for the implementation of state policy in this area. In April, it was headed by Gennady Novikov, and in June, the agency began work.
