18 Jul, 2022
"By the end of 2022, the amount transferred from Georgia to foreign gambling sites will reach 2 billion," George Mamulaishvili, the head of the administration of the Georgian Gambling Association, told about this.
Before that, the financial director of "Europabet" Giorgi Nizharadze predicted an outflow of 0.5 billion GEL.
According to the head of the administration of the Gambling Association, the reason for the outflow of money is the law adopted last winter, according to which, from March 1, 2022, persons under 25 years of age and public officials were prohibited from playing, as well as the advertising of gambling games.
George Mamulaishvili calls the databases prepared by the Ministry of Finance irrelevant, because, according to him, citizens on the website of gambling games use the so-called They register with fake accounts and still play; Also, according to him, 133 foreign gaming websites operating in Georgia today, which have been translated into Georgian and have become a kind of alternative for players, create a problem in the industry.
"Georgian authorities cannot oppose all this in any way due to the fact that neither Facebook, nor Instagram, nor other foreign sites, as well as the operators themselves, are under Georgia's jurisdiction. There are no licensed operators in Georgia, so when they spend a lot of money, they expect a return. If they didn't have this return, there wouldn't be the same Marsbet today, a sponsor of one of the football teams.
The number we mention - 2 billion, which will be sent from Georgia, is based on exactly this information, because we always do different types of analysis and always try to find the right information", Mamulaishvili said.
As for the list of gambling addicts of the Ministry of Finance, according to George Mamulaishvili, 0.05% of all citizens were registered in the list, which is a minimum figure.
"In some countries of the world, the average is even 3%, so from the NGOs who appeal that the youth of Georgia are dying, 70% of the players are addicted to the game, etc., it was just throwing loud words into the air, based on nothing more because I have always said that qualified research has not been conducted in Georgia, to investigate any problem a qualified research is needed and such research does not exist in Georgia today", Mamulaishvili said.
According to the head of the administration of the Gambling Association, the current law does not work, which has put the gambling industry in an uncontrolled situation.
