Under the guise of fighting gambling addiction among the military, Hetmantsev wants to take control of lottery licensing - Kuchukhidze

Danylo Hetmantsev, head of the Rada's tax committee, wants to gain control over the licensing process for lottery companies. To do this, he is lobbying for the adoption of a bill on combating gambling addiction among military personnel and liquidation of the State Agency for International Legal Cooperation, which will create a new regulator of lotteries. This opinion was expressed by Anton Kuchukhidze, Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Gambling Council, in an exclusive commentary to UNN.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading the draft law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine to Combat Gambling Addiction (Ludomania) and Improve State Regulation of Activities Related to Organization and Conduct of Gambling and Lotteries as a Basis".

They played the story of "gambling addiction among the military" beautifully, and they created a certain noise, received a decision from the National Security and Defense Council, and decided to lobby for one simple thing under this noise. They want to create a separate regulator for lottery activities. Relatively speaking, Hetmantsev will be in full control there, they will adopt these gray license conditions, submit them to the Cabinet of Ministers, and the Cabinet will most likely approve them... The scheme will take place and you will never see new investments in the Ukrainian white gambling market again 

He added that lotteries currently have preferences in the gambling market, as their license is automatically renewed and they do not pay money to the budget.

At the same time, according to Kuchukhidze, Getmantsev's goal is to prevent international companies from entering the Ukrainian gambling market and create maximum preferences for lottery players

Historically, what I know is that his (Getmantsev's - ed.) ideology is that it is necessary to drive the white gambling business into a framework where it will not grow and top European and American brands will not enter it, so that the market does not stabilize, you cannot do this. And (Hetmantsev wants - ed.) to give preferences to lottery players as much as possible... That's why this is their topic, they played the story beautifully, and it's obvious to me, as a market expert, that this was his ideology - to limit some and give more preferences to his own 

He noted that representatives of the All-Ukrainian Gambling Council were not invited to discuss Hetmantsev's initiative.

I cannot support the gambling bill if our largest association is not involved in the discussion. I mean, we really represent the gambling industry - 80% of the market is our members. I wonder how it is possible to write a bill and not involve the professional community at least for post-facto discussion. When I wrote letters to Mr. Hetmantsev on other draft laws that they had, they were lost somewhere, and I received a reply that we would take into account the position, and nothing was taken into account. The fact that there is no dialog with such a respected person in the field we represent looks very strange. So how can I support the bill when we were not invited, but it concerns us?

Regarding the liquidation of KRAIL, he noted that the commission defended the position on the separation of gambling and lotteries.

Therefore, it is clear that Hetmantsev is not satisfied with KRAIL, for three years he has not been able to lobby this scheme (according to which lotteries could engage in betting activities - ed.) at the level of the Cabinet of Ministers... well, in fact, this draft license conditions legalized this gray history, such as a lottery that is simultaneously engaged in betting, online casinos, etc

Recall

Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, previously notedthat she had no doubt that the head of the Rada Tax Committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, and his first deputy, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, are interested in controlling the gambling business.