Ukraine urges lottery legislation
Ukraine officials have reiterated their petition for a comprehensive legislation on the lottery sector.
Ukraine.- Yuiry Lutsenko, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO), has joined the demand for a comprehensive legislation on the lottery sector. Several ministers have already introduced petitions to regulate the gaming industry since November last year. According to the local news agency, InterFax, Lutsenko urged the Cabinet of Ministers to sign a resolution.
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine announced its intentions to legalise the gambling industry in order to boost the local economy and generate revenue. The Ministry sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund to detail its plan. However, the legislation has not moved forward yet.
Furthermore, Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s Interior Minister presented an initiative to be able to regulate the operation of gambling and lotteries on the market. The measure aims at supervising the money flow. “The Cabinet is devising the licensing procedure, but Ukraine’s National Lottery, as the single taxpayer in the lottery business, has legal status,” commented Lutsenko last week.
“I think this problem can be solved legislatively, just as the bootleg amber mining problem, illegal logging, etc. It is possible to punish offenders, but it necessary to allow operators to work legally. Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers, in my opinion, must in the nearest future issue official licenses to one, two, three… however many lotteries they deem fit. That will be the legal foundation, and all other [lotteries] not operating according to it should be eliminated from the streets of our cities,” concluded the official.
