Ukraine Imposes Restrictions on Online Gambling
Ukraine has become the next country to follow the tendency of restrictions imposed on the gambling sphere in order to make this type of entertainment more responsible and fight with the growing gambling addiction. Continue reading to find out what are the new rules for gamblers and operators.
Starting May 2024, new restrictions have taken effect due to the decree signed by the president of Ukraine. The decree was issued as a reaction to the petition signed by over 25,000 people.
The gambling market in Ukraine has become legal again in 2019. Since that time, the quantity of gambling advertisements increased significantly and the percentage of people with gambling addiction increased. The issued decree impacts the online gambling sphere and does not change the state of things for land-based casinos.
CONTROL OVER ADVERTISING
The decree contains an advertising ban which should be imposed within three months, so gambling ads should be limited online. The current law that regulates this aspect is in action, but it does not provide enough limitation. Therefore, gambling advertising of gambling is quite intensive now.
There is no information about the specific restrictions that should be implemented yet. However, there are discussions in Parliament that the ban should impose certain restrictions, but ads should remain.
RESTRICTIONS FOR GAMBLERS
Those are not only ads that should be restricted. The current rules for gamblers should be changed as well. According to the decree, operators should provide the following:
- Limit the number of accounts per person to only one.
- The maximum time period spent by gamblers on the website within 24 hours should be limited.
- A maximum time for gambling activity per week should be introduced.
- Obligatory breaks should be introduced.
- The operator should set a limit on deposits for a certain period of time. It is not clear yet if the limit will be determined for a day, week, or a month. This limit can be changed by a player once a month.
ONLINE MONITORING AND WEBSITES BLOCK
Moreover, the responsible bodies should block access to the illegal websites from Ukraine. This should be implemented within three months. We will see how it will work in practice, as this restriction should have been imposed two years ago. However, many online gambling destinations that are not licensed in Ukraine are still available for players.
All those restrictions should make the gambling industry a safer place for gamblers and solve the problem of gambling addiction at least partially. However, the decree conflicts with many norms of the gambling law. Another issue is that many norms are not regulated by the law in any way. Therefore, it is still under the question if any of those restrictions will actually take effect in Ukraine.
You might also be interested to know if Lithuanians support an advertising ban in the country.
