Kazakh Tourism and Sports Ministry forms gambling committee

The new committee will gather information about gambling services and users and take operative decisions.

Kazakhstan.- The Kazakh Tourism and Sports Ministry has reorganised its tourism industry committee and formed a new gambling business and lottery regulation committee. The Kazinform News Agency has reported that the creation of the new committee has been 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.

In his state-of-the-nation address last week, Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke of the need to eliminate destructive patterns of behaviour, including gambling addiction.

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).

The centralised system would give the government greater surveillance over gambling, but critics say the system would put payments in the hands of a private monopoly, comparing the proposal to the former Kazakhstan Betting Accounting Center (BAC) proposal, which was scrapped amid allegations of bribery involving a former vice minister. Kazakhstan Fair Gambling Campaign said there was a lack of transparency around the structure and ownership of the UAS.