The state, society, and the gambling business insist on establishing clear and transparent rules for the legal gambling market and improving measures to counteract illegal practices. After all, the lack of clear rules and significant tax pressure contribute to the growth of the shadow gambling sector. Instead, the licence fees received from the gambling business in Ukraine are used to implement social programmes, in particular in the areas of healthcare, education, culture and sports, as well as scientific and technical activities. This is approximately UAH 2 billion per year.

Zoriana Toporetska, Doctor of Law, Associate Professor, spoke about this issue in her column for Liga.net.  

"This year, the gambling business has already contributed about 7 billion hryvnias to the budget of Ukraine in the form of various taxes, despite doing business in the context of war, lack of tourists and complicated conditions for gambling facilities," the expert emphasises.

According to her, there are legal forms of gambling business in Ukraine today, but the market structure is unstable. The state of the gambling market is affected not only by the war situation; the illegal gambling market continues to operate even under wartime conditions. The reason for this is quite simple: in Ukraine, it is more profitable to engage in illegal business than to obtain a licence and act as an official gambling organiser.

Expressing her opinion, the expert points out the need to amend the legislation in order to create conditions under which it would be profitable to work legally in Ukraine.

She emphasises that, first of all, it is necessary to normalise the issue of tax pressure on the industry, given the high cost of gambling licences, which is one of the highest in Europe.

It is also important to regulate the taxation of winnings and cancel the triple fee for licences for betting, online casinos and slot machines," the expert concludes.