Day 772
Ludomaniacs with NLAWs
I immediately thought of the house in Fata Morgana, on-line dating apps and MangaGamer while reading this very odd article appearing in Bloomberg about online gambling in Ukraine1.
And, of course, miscoding, the (very illegal) banking practice of incorrectly indicating the payment code for gambling transactions on which taxes are much lower. I don’t want to get to far into the weeds about this here. Just think about a dogfeeding loop and you get the picture2.
We have not invented a causal model for the work of CRGL (Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries), but this may not be necessary, because lawmakers already want to get rid of it.
Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, Deputy Chairman of Holos party faction and First Deputy Chairman of parliament’s Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy, said in a Telegram post on April 4 that his committee had unanimously approved a draft measure (9256d) to dissolve the CRGL and transfer its regulatory functions to the Digital Transformation Ministry.
According to Yaroslav, the proposed legislation would restrict gambling advertising (including the inadmissibility of speculation on the topic of war and volunteering) and introduced a ban on sponsorship, as well as seeks “to identify additional tools to limit visits to gambling facilities and participation in gambling for potentially vulnerable categories of the population during martial law.”
Whatever that means.
In addition the measure would improve tools for controlling the gambling business (control purchases, monitoring of the Internet) and establish additional criteria for license revocation, improvement of requirements for impeccable business reputation of officials of gambling organizers, establishment of requirements for gambling service providers, introducing regulations to further limit financial gateways.
In other words, a word salad. And we don’t trust Yaroslav.
According to the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), from June to October 2023, the share of hidden advertising in favor of the gambling business in news feeds of popular online media increased from 12.4% to 16.4%. Offline advertising — now an ever-present eyesore — boosts brand awareness, which contributes exclusively to the redistribution of existing players among market operators, and we know who they are (and who owns them)3.
Ukraine Tackles Gambling Addiction Within Its Military Ranks. Zelenskyy responds to petition citing risk to morale, security (Bloomberg, April 3, 2024)
The Ukraine of Why. Do no harm (January 23, 2024)
ТОВ "Лімон" (championca ssino)
ТОВ "Геймдев" (slotscity)
ТОВ "УГТ" (pin-up)
ТОВ "Фьорст Елемент" (first)
ТОВ "БК "Фавбет" (favbet)
ТОВ "Спейсикс" (cosmolot)
ТОВ "Вбет Україна" (vbet)
ТОВ "Слотс Ю.Ей" (slotoking)
ТОВ "Паріматч" (parimatch, pm)
ТОВ "Лото Онлайн" (unl.ua)
ТОВ "Конкуерор " (vulkan casino)
ТОВ "Нейтів АППС" (supergra).