On April 20, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj signed a decree against the negative effects of online gambling, which proposes to ban it for the military until the end of martial law.
Zelensky supported the National Security and Defense Council's decision after announcing that the government was preparing to tighten control over Ukraine's online gambling industry. The negative social effects of gambling became a topic of public discussion after a petition calling for restrictions on online gambling landed on the president's desk.
This document prohibits military personnel from having access to gambling during martial law.
The President further ordered:
- to develop a procedure to restrict all forms of gambling advertising, in particular the use of symbols of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other military formations;
- to prohibit the registration of multiple accounts for one player and establish a maximum playing time per day for one account and introduce mandatory breaks in the game, specify the maximum playing time per week;
- the obligation for online game organizers to set a spending limit for a player for a certain period of time before the start of the game;
- implementation of the state online monitoring system;
- to conduct a national awareness campaign on the dangers of gambling;
The Ministry of Digital Transformation has been ordered to conduct negotiations with Apple and Google within a month on the ban on placing gambling applications without a license.
The Security Service of Ukraine, together with authorized bodies, should ensure that within two months gambling organizers are subject to inspection for compliance with Ukrainian legislation on sanctions and take measures to impose appropriate sanctions on gambling organizers gambling.
Furthermore, the decree contains recommendations to the National Bank of Ukraine to introduce within two weeks a ban on accepting assets as collateral and to approve within two months guidelines for banks on blocking the use of credit funds for gambling I gamble.
