Bill to dissolve Ukrainian gambling regulator passes first reading

The parliament has voted on bill 9256d, which proposes the liquidation of KRAIL.

Ukraine.- The Ukrainian parliament has voted to approve the first reading of bill 9256d, which proposes to disband the national gambling regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAIL). The regulator was created following the re-legalisation of gambling in Ukraine in July 2020.

Bill 9256d was submitted a year ago by deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. He proposed the replacement of KRAIL with a new executive body due to long delays in KRAIL’s work. The regulator operates on a collegial body comprising a chairman and six members. Since five members need to be present at all meetings, licence applications were often delayed due to absences amid the ongoing war with Russia.

The bill also proposes restrictions on gambling advertising and responsible gambling measures to protect vulnerable segments. Some 272 legislators voted in favour of the bill, which will now pass to a second reading before it can be signed by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has enacted National Security and Defense Council (RNBO) measures to ban gambling among members of the military. There will also be a ban on using military iconography in gambling advertising. 

The measures were inspired by a petition launched by Pavlo Petrychenko, a commander in the 59th separate motorised infantry brigade. The RNBO has now instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to develop procedures to prohibit gambling advertising that uses the symbols of armed forces. It also wants a ban on registering multiple accounts for a single player and a weekly time limit for gambling.