Ukraine: sharp uptick in gambling exclusions
The Ukrainian gambing regulator has reported a sharp rise in the number of people being added to its exclusion register.
Ukraine.- The Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAIL) has reported a sharp rise in the number of people who are excluded from gambling. While the total is still very small, the number of people choosing to exclude rose from 195 in 2021 and 315 in 2022 to 245 in the first four months of this year alone.
Of the 687 people now on the list, 643 are men and just 44 are women. Many applications were submitted by relatives: 45 by mothers, 13 by wives and eight by fathers. The majority are young, with 272 aged 21 to 30 and 278 between 31 and 40. Only 33 entries are aged 51 and over.
KRAIL launched Ukraine’s gambling exclusion register in 2021 following the re-legalisation of gambling in August 2020. It has since made maintenance of the register a “priority task”.
Players who want to self-exclude can apply to join the register for fixed periods of between six months and three years. Gamblers can also be added by family members, who will need to provide evidence, for example, of high spending on gambling, heavy debts, unpaid child support or receipt of housing benefits.
KRAIL chairman Ivan Rudy said: “There is certainly a demand for a conscious attitude to gambling, first of all from those who have already faced difficulties.”
Social responsibility in gambling
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAIL) and other stakeholders have signed a new memorandum on cooperation with the goal of ensuring social responsibility in gambling.
Rudy was joined at a round table by KRAIL members Olena Vodolazhko and Khrystyna Dutka, representatives of the ministry of health, ministry of education and science, ministry of social policy, the state regulatory service, the Centre of Responsible Gaming, the All-Ukrainian Gambling Council and the KRAIL Advisory and Expert Council. They discussed measures to prevent gambling addiction and signed a memorandum on cooperation to work together.
Earlier this month, KRAIL confirmed that it has suspended two state lotteries. The instant win lottery Catch the Moment and the numerical draw lottery Penalty have been suspended since the start of the month.
Penalty had been running since September 2018. The Ukrainian lottery newspaper Zigzag Udachy and the Ukrainian National Lottery website published the news but did not give any reason for the suspension. The lotteries reportedly stopped taking bets at midnight on March 24.
