Until 2020, gambling advertising was illegal, as was the business itself. In August of the same year, it was legalized, after which a surge of gambling business advertising began in the Ukrainian media.
According to the Institute of Mass Information (IMI), from June to October 2023, the share of hidden advertising in its favor in the news feeds of popular online media increased from 12.4% to 16.4%. In the media, advertising revenues fell sharply during the war, and casinos offer very interesting conditions - they are willing to pay two to three times the market price as a premium for the reputational risks for the advertising platform.
Aggressive advertising of the gambling business, which is now heard from every iron, gave results - according to the NBU, in 2023, Ukrainians lost about UAH 400 million in online casinos every day, or more than UAH 12 billion per month. For understanding, the gambling business paid about UAH 10 billion in taxes for 2023, that is, less than what Ukrainians lose in one month. At the same time, the total turnover of the gambling business increased almost 15 times a year and reached UAH 207 billion.
At the same time, after the start of the war, the Ukrainian gambling business shows that it helps the army and informs about it in every possible way through advertising. However, stories are breaking into the public space that the Ukrainian military has almost become the main customers of online casinos.
"In our unit, a fighter came across an advertisement for a casino on the Internet and came in to "indulge a little." We receive combat 50-100 thousand hryvnias. A week after receiving his salary, he was already going and borrowing money from his brothers. We looked at his card history and it turned out that he lost 80 thousand in just one night. At the same time, he constantly repeats that he is keeping the situation under control," the head of the evacuation group from the Kupyan district told reporters.
"Pawn shops and the OLH website are clogged with volunteer property. Gambling should be banned during martial law. Their taxes are offset by the broken lives of the fighters. No amount of donations to online casinos can compensate for the damage they caused to the army," wrote Junior Sergeant 59 OMPB Pavlo Petrychenko, who calls what is happening an epidemic of gambling addiction.
People's deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko claims that "9 out of 10 soldiers on the front line have problems with casinos or betting."
"Money is lost. Then they take loans. And so in a circle. This is a problem that is destroying the morale of the military right now. But in addition to this, it creates a problem for later. The man spent a year or two on the front line. She received there conditionally from 60 to 150 thousand hryvnias. "Instead of buying a home, investing or simply saving money, I lost everything," Goncharenko writes.
Pavlo Petrychenko suggests introducing a register and verification of players during martial law, limiting users who receive salaries from military units. Part of this problem already has a solution - in Ukraine there is a Register of Ludomaniacs - persons who are restricted from accessing gambling establishments and participating in gambling. According to the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAIL), 3,871 persons were included in the list during the three years of its existence. The vast majority - 87% of them - made it to the 2023 list.
However, 99% of people entered the Register based on their own declaration of self-limitation. Only 1% of people were included in the register by the decision of KRAIL - in those cases when the relatives of the drug addict applied. At the same time, according to the court's decision, not a single person was included in the Register.
For ludomaniacs in Ukraine, there are only temporary bans on visiting gambling establishments - for a period of six months to three years. After the expiration of the terms, the effect of these restrictions is automatically terminated. It should also be noted that in December 2023, Law 9422 was passed, which prohibits the granting of loans to drug addicts who entered the Register. However, this restriction is valid only if the list states that the person used credit funds for the game.
