Gambling in Ukraine: industry body asks Google to stop blocking ads

The Ukrainian Gambling Council (UGC) has asked Google to allow licensed gambling operators to advertise their services.

Ukraine.- The Ukrainian Gambling Council (UGC) has asked Google to stop blocking the advertising of licensed gambling operators in the country. The industry association said that its ad blocking is not required under Ukrainian legislation and was causing losses for businesses as well as in terms of tax revenue for the country itself.

The body said in a statement that it had reached out to Google’s regional office in the country to ask the search giant to allow licensed gambling operators to advertise their services.

It said: “Combating illegal online gambling advertising is an important component of counteracting the development of black market gambling. However, over the past year, an unbalanced policy has led to extremely negative consequences. Search engines have begun to block all advertising related to licensed Ukrainian gambling market organisers that have established domain addresses in the Ukrainian online segment.”

It added: “Illegal operators, who can easily change the names of their websites and move from one domain to another in different jurisdictions, have hardly felt the effects of the ban.”

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian gambling regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAIL), has been continuing to fight against unlicensed gambling websites. It blocked five more online gambling sites in August after blocking 11 in July. The regulator named the latest sites affected as 1xslot.com, Bet2casino.fun, Betmatch2win.com, Betwinner6.com and Kasinos-vip.net.

It said the sites had been providing access to gambling in Ukraine without the corresponding licence in violation of legislation. KRAIL says it has blocked almost 3,000 unlicensed gambling sites so far this year as it clamps down in an effort to tackle problem gambling in the country.