Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Goncharuk has ordered inspections of gambling establishments operating under the guise of loto markets, or sale of lottery tickets. Corresponding orders were issued to the National Police and the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine.

“I instructed the National Police of Ukraine today to start checking the activities of all state lottery operators for compliance with the law banning gambling business. And the State Fiscal Service should organize license checks for all so-called state lotteries,” Honcharuk wrote on his Facebook page.

The order was the reaction of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to the refusal of the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada to adopt a law on the legalization of the gambling business in the country. Voting on this issue took place the day before, the document received 213 votes out of 226 required for the approval of the document. At the same time, according toinstruction of President Volodymyr Zelensky, the authorities had to legalize the gambling business in Ukraine by December 1, 2019.

Commenting on the decision to conduct inspections, Oleksiy Honcharuk emphasized that Volodymyr Zelensky instructed him to “break the system of gambling halls” after voting in the Rada. Such actions seem justified and seem logical in a situation where almost all Ukrainian politicians publicly advocate the legalization of gambling, but at the same time delay the adoption of the law due to the strong lobby of lottery operators. It is the lottery companies that currently, under the guise of loto markets, maintain slot machine halls in Ukrainian cities, which have been formally banned since 2009. Salon owners hide behind the licenses of state lottery operators and callvideo slots and electronic roulettes visualization of draws.

“Gambling is prohibited in our country, but state lotteries are allowed. And under their guise they hide behind. We thought that a law would be developed that would normalize this ecosystem. There are a lot of papers, court decisions, with which these comrades, who call themselves lottery players, hide behind. But when we realized that the decision was being delayed, we, on the instructions of the president, decided to break their legal structure, and we did. Governments today banned the distribution of the old license terms. It will continue to do so until now, until illegal halls disappear throughout the country,” said Oleksiy Honcharuk. 743