Ukraine lost €1.7 bn over gambling ban

The country has reportedly lost billions in just five years because of the gambling ban.

Ukraine.- Alexander Yaroslavsky, founder of the Development Construction Holding (DCH), talked at the international economic forum in Kharkiv and said that Ukraine’s budget could have counted with more than €1.7 billion in taxes over the past five years if the gambling ban didn’t exist.

The founder of DCH said that while he personally didn’t like casinos as he doesn’t “have the time” for that, the gambling industry exists in other countries and therefore they should not give the money to corrupt people in Ukraine, gordonua.com revealed.

“Ukrainian budget has lost about €1.7 billion over 5 years as I mentioned. Just compare two sums: we can not find €105 million dollars for the construction of the takeoff strip in Dnipro but €1.7 billion just disappeared in the pockets of corrupt officials,” Yaroslavsky said.

Yaroslavsky, a businessman in the country that was formerly co-owner of UkrSibbank, was ranked by Forbes as the tenth richest person in Ukraine.