In his latest blog for Ukrainian News, the head of the Ukrainian Gambling Council (UGC) Anton Kuchukhidze wrote about how the global consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war affected the gambling industry. He focused on the increase in energy prices.
“Due to a significant increase in energy prices, the cost of production and services has risen sharply. At the same time, consumers have not become more solvent, which has led to a decrease in demand,” he notes.
In particular, this also affected European countries. According to Kuchukhidze, the CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), Michael Dugher, asked the UK government to take appropriate measures and help legal gambling overcome the consequences of the energy crisis.
Dugher highlighted that the industry annually generates for the British economy around £4bn, pays £2bn in taxes and directly employs over 44,000 people.
Kuchukhidze cited the Ukrainian market as a comparison, where legal gambling has existed for only two years:
“While populists in Ukraine continue talking about the gambling “harmfulness”, in the UK gambling is a full-fledged sector of the economy, which generates billions of revenue and is one of the biggest employers. And similarly to any other sector of the economy, like agriculture or engineering, it can count on governmental support.”
He also stated that very important regulatory issues and laws have not yet been adopted in the country, like the gambling taxation law 2713-д, as well as the police have not yet closed thousands of illegal halls.
Kuchukhidze believes that regulatory changes and different attitude of people towards gambling will comprehensively contribute to the industry development in Ukraine.
“Society should finally begin to realize that gambling is an entertainment, but not something dubious,” he concluded.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our Telegram-channel!
