Gambling in Kyrgyzstan: bill to allow casinos in hotels passes triple reading
The government says the legalisation of casinos in hotels will attract investment.
Kyrgyzstan.- The parliament of Kyrgyzstan has voted in favour of a bill to allow casinos in hotels. The bill, which was proposed by the cabinet in a bid to attract investors, was given three simultaneous readings.
Under existing law, gambling is prohibited in properties that are wholly or partly owned by the state or owned by enterprises and organisations in which the state owns a share of the capital. However, the cabinet said it had seen opportunities for the development of gambling in Kyrgyzstan amid rising revenue from licensed operators.
It noted that three gambling licences had been issued for casinos and four for bookmaking, bringing in 210m soms (€2.28m) in licence fees. Meanwhile, some 96.9bn soms were generated for the budget of Kyrgyzstan from taxes on gambling in 2023, according to the Ministry of Finance.
The casinos in hotels would be aimed at foreign tourists aged over 21. President Sadyr Japarov signed the Law on Gambling Activities in the Kyrgyz Republic in June 2022. The legislation bans Kyrgyzstanis, foreign citizens aged under 21 and incapacitated foreign citizens from using gambling establishments.
Last month, neighbouring Kazakhstan’s Tourism and Sports Ministry reorganised its tourism industry committee and formed a new gambling business and lottery regulation committee. The Kazinform News Agency reported that the creation of the new committee was approved via a government decree.
The committee’s purpose is reportedly to collect information about gambling services and users, to make operative decisions and to ensure compliance with legislation. The move means that the Tourism and Sports Ministry now has three committees, with the gambling committee sitting alongside the sports and physical culture committee and the reorganised tourism industry committee.
Meanwhile, gambling operators in Kazakhstan have heavily criticised proposed legislation that would change the regulation of payments for the gambling and fintech sectors. The lobby group Kazakhstan Fair Gambling Campaign says the government has not consulted on plans to create a Unified Accounting System (UAS).
