Ukraine Lawmakers Seek Regulator Dissolvement

Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Mykhalio Fedorov announced that he's submitted a draft law to the country's legislative body that would dissolve the country's gaming regulator KRAIL and replace it with a new body.

The draft law was submitted due to a combination of alleged corruption and a move to make licensing decisions more automated. The regulator has been under pressure as many of the group's members have been mobilized to serve in the military to fight back against the Russian invasion of the country. This has made regulator meetings impossible to be held, and has seen measures like licensing being bogged down.

To fix this, the new regulator would be largely automated, with Fedorov's ministry claiming that the it would lower costs and mitigate corruption seen in the past.

Regarding the decision, the Ministry said, "Blocking the work of KRAIL leads to complete instability of the market, as well as loss of revenues to the budget. The current format of KRAIL is imperfect and needs to be reformed.

"[Automating the licensing process] will make corruption schemes impossible and ensure stable revenues to the budget from market players.

"Licensing is one of the most corrupt processes in gambling. [KRAIL] is responsible for this."

Understandably, KRAIL was against the proposal, with Chairman Ivan Rudy saying: "To be honest, I didn't understand what this story was for, what the final efficiency was. After reviewing the main theses, I saw that the proposed changes are, in fact, current legislation. I didn't understand what we are changing.

"How many new licenses do we expect to receive? About 36 have been issued in three years for operating rights, as well as a large number of licenses for gaming equipment.

"Why waste money and create an automation product for something that has a finite small numerical significance, relatively speaking."

The draft law being an official law will take some time, and Casino Listings News will be updating readers as the process plays out.