The Georgian Gambling  Association (GGA) is concerned that the government has decided to introduce new regulations in the field without prior consultation with the business. George Mamulaishvili, the head of the administration of AIP Georgian Gaming Business Association, announced this at the press conference held on Thursday.

Last week, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili came out with an initiative to tighten the rules of online casinos in Georgia. In the first stage, it is planned to increase fees for online casinos, ban advertising and increase the age limit of users to 25 years.

"The expected regulations are completely unacceptable considering that specific consultations with businesses have not been carried out. "The tone and form in which the government communicates with business is also unacceptable, and this happens only through the media," said Mamulaishvili.

The head of the Administration of the Association requests a meeting with the members of the Georgian government, and at the same time, he notes that the announced changes will lead to an increase in unemployment and will have a negative impact on many sectors of the Georgian economy: sports, media, telecommunications, finance and the information technology sector.

"If the government maintains a one-sided position and does not start a dialogue with business, we will be forced to optimize expenses accordingly, refuse a number of social and other projects, including sports sponsorship. "Because of the planned regulations, part of sports will lose its meaning for business, business will be forced to consider the possibility of disconnecting sports products, online bookmakers," said Mamulaishvili.

GGA adds that "unpredictable, irrational legislative initiatives and government announcements significantly worsen the country's image, investment environment and negatively affect the inflow of foreign direct investment."

Mamulaishvili recalled the main risk of regulation - the fact that similar regulations leave a lot of room for the shadow economy. Mamulaishvili also noted that the new rules will cause the majority of consumers to switch to the foreign market. In practice, this means that citizens will continue to gamble in online casinos with VPN or other methods, which the Georgian government cannot control, and therefore the country's budget will lose revenue.

"This is a list of unlicensed sites that are not registered in Georgia. The outflow of funds abroad continues today and this amount is 120 million GEL per year. It will be impossible to control this due to the current technological progress", said George Mamulaishvili.

The Ministry of Finance of Georgia, on behalf of the Prime Minister, has already prepared a draft amendment on new mechanisms for taxation of online casinos. The bill was submitted to the Parliament of Georgia this month.

Going forward, the difference between bets received and winnings paid out (GGR) will likely be taxed at 10%. In addition, according to the bill, citizens of Georgia under 25 years of age will be prohibited from online games and land-based casinos.

In addition to raising the age limit, access to gambling will be restricted for several groups, up to a million adults, including: vulnerable people on public benefits; civil servants; Persons applying to the Revenue Service with a request to use the self-restriction mechanism; Persons who meet the so-called At the request of family members, on the basis of a court decision, blacklist.

Source: https://cutt.ly/LPuxAZD