01 Mar, 2022
As of today, the amendments to the Law "On the Organization of Lotteries, Gambling and Profitable Games" adopted in the country at the end of 2021 came into force, according to which citizens under the age of 25, socially vulnerable persons receiving state benefits, civil servants, persons applying for financial assistance were prohibited from participating in gambling. to the Revenue Service of the Ministry with the request to use the self-restriction mechanism and also to those who will fall into the so-called On the "black list" based on a court decision or at the request of family members.
George Mamulaishvili, head of the administration of the gaming business association, says that the business received the database about 1 week ago, it is about more than 900,000 people, however, as the association explains, the list is flawed and its number almost doubles the number of people who have the right to play as of today. was limited.
"There are a number of loopholes - these are stuck people who, let's say, once worked in the public sector, or once received an allowance, so later it will cause some inconvenience, because these people will have to apply to the service centers of the Revenue Service and change their status, although the promise is that the lists will be updated .
At this point, there are more than 900,000 people on the list, although we expect this list to be halved by rule. Probably, it will be settled within 1 month", Mamulaishvili says.
As of today, television and outdoor advertising of gaming businesses is prohibited; Also, advertising on Georgian websites. Gaming business operators will only be allowed to sign a sponsorship agreement.
The sector is already talking about the results and says that in the first stage the turnover will decrease by 15-20%, and the number of employees, which is 12 thousand at this stage, will decrease by approximately 25% in the next 1-month period.
Among the negative effects are the dangers of activation of the black market. The association says that a number of fake accounts have already appeared, and the number of bet takers has increased. Also, the restriction of advertising has led to the appearance of foreign illegal sites and clones of the Georgian site, which, despite the prohibition of transfers by the National Bank, it is still not possible to deal with them.
"In the first stage, our turnover will decrease by 15-20%, which is due to advertising restrictions. Foreign companies were given the opportunity to advertise in Georgia, and our operators are restricted; We hope that the state will finally understand this and give us the right to advertise, even in terms of attracting foreigners.
In this situation, the funds that were spent in the media will no longer go to the IT sector, it is about hundreds of millions of GEL annually, and this will hit the media market and advertising business in the next 1 month. More than 12,000 people are employed, according to our report, the reduction will be 20-25%, the market will show us the rest.
Where there are prohibitions, there is always a black market, it happened in Georgia as well; There are fake accounts, rental services, bookies, which were quite a lot 20 years ago. It also led to the appearance of foreign illegal sites on the Georgian market, 133 sites translated their content into Georgian, clones of many Georgian companies appeared, for example, "Batlive". It is quite difficult to control this, the National Bank is instructed to limit transfers to the MCC code of gambling games, although practice has shown that these companies use the MCC codes of online stores, not gambling games, that is, the Internet cannot be blocked, Mamulaishvili says.
How the Ministry of Finance maintained the database and how it intends to verify personal information, despite the efforts of bmg on this topic, the Ministry of Finance and the Revenue Service do not comment.
