Digital media has changed the agenda and dynamics of information dissemination. However, on social media, facts are often confused with misinformation or half-truths, creating ambiguity and speculation. Every time our opponents use irresponsible statements and statistics in the media without context, turnover, without analyzing the output or other characteristics, we compare different indicators of the business with each other. . False information may look like real information but contains elements of a lie. Unlike real news, which tries to convey facts as objectively and accurately as possible, misinformation deliberately confuses facts with misinformation or is based entirely on lies. A clear example of such false information is the article "The Most Profitable Businesses in Georgia" published on BPN, which deliberately misleads people. And mishandles numbers.

Numbers lie whenever we do not know the context and do not care what lies behind those numbers. Unqualified statements become an ideal servant of disinformation if we refuse to analyze and are guided by bare numbers. It is necessary to consider numbers in the context of other factors in order to interpret them adequately. Exactly such false statistics arise against the gambling business on a daily basis and numbers are manipulated. This only affects the emotional state of people and intensifies aggression, but it does not tell us anything in reality and creates many examples of misinterpretation of numbers for analysts, researchers and interested people.

The goal is simple, namely to show statistics, thus easily manipulating. It is important for people to develop the skills of understanding and interpreting statistics, critical thinking or evaluating information in us, in the context of statistics. Instead of revenue (as the article was titled), BPN and other media outlets have published statistics showing the gambling business's 25 billion annual turnover. With information like this being published deliberately, perhaps incompetently, people are convinced that a $ 25 billion turnover means the sector's $ 25 billion in revenue.

In fact, these statistics show not directly the income of the sector, but the bets made. Since 2018, Geostat has been active in gambling The evaluation of the activities of the enterprises started with a new methodology, which had a significant impact on the turnover of enterprises in the relevant sector. From 2018, the turnover is determined by the number of bets placed each time. Due to the different approach to accounting, the turnover of the gambling business sector in 2018 and beyond is not comparable to the data of the previous period.

The methodological changes were preceded by a number of activities carried out by Geostat in 2018, in cooperation with international organizations and with the active involvement of representatives of the relevant field. In July 2018, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Geostat and the Gambling Business Association, during which a number of working meetings were held. The meeting was attended by representatives of companies from the Gambling Business Association along with employees of Geostat and the Revenue Service. The aim of the cooperation was to provide Geostat with quality information, to improve data accounting in the field of gambling business and to introduce international practice in the country. In the gambling business sector, each piece of data is processed in accordance with IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). Companies in the Gambling Business Association strictly adhere to IFRS standards and strictly adhere to the basic qualitative characteristics of reporting when producing financial statements; Compliance and reliability. There are also four additional qualitative characteristics of financial accounting: comparability, audibility, timeliness and visibility

The changes in Geostat affected only the turnover rate, while the other indicators, such as output and value added, are calculated using the same methodology as Geostat used in the previous period.

We talked to Davit Kupatadze, Head of the Business Statistics Department of the National Statistics Office of Georgia, about the new Geostat methodology, as well as the differences between turnover and income.

What are the specifics and peculiarities of the gambling business statistics?

Until 2018, the turnover rate in the gambling sector was calculated differently, after 2018, Geostat switched to the international, Eurostat methodology, which is a proven international practice, where the turnover rate is already calculated by the sum of bets made. When we publish and disseminate this data, we consistently indicate that the turnover rate cannot be used to characterize the revenues of that sector.

What is the difference between a gambling business turnover and income?

Turnover is the sum of the bets made by the player. In reality, turnover only measures customer activity, how often bets are made. We have also created a video that clearly shows the difference between turnover and income, that these two are not equal in any case, because people often confuse the difference between turnover and income, because more or less the gambling business is specific to different sectors, different approaches are needed. .

How is the gambling business actually calculated?

If you are interested in seeing the real income of the sector, you should not look at the turnover rate, in the information posted on the official Geostat website the turnover and income are sharply separated from each other. A special term GGR (GROSS GAMBLING REVENUE) has been established in Georgia, which is an international term and means the income of the gambling business, which is considered as follows. The entire turnover lacks prize money. This indicator should be used by the interested person when he / she needs to measure the revenues of the sector.

Where can an interested person verify the information obtained so as to distinguish between false and true statistics from each other.

It is important for us not to provide information to the public in a distorted way, for this we do everything, both official statements and press releases. We publish annual reports on our website and make videos as well. All this information is published on the Geostat Facebook page and Youtube channel. If any person is interested, we are ready to answer their questions in writing as well. To put it simply, the turnover that is so appealed to is just the sum of the bets placed on the games. The stakes are often hypothetical and not really money, which can only be seen on the account of the person involved in the game. To make it clearer, the turnover according to the new methodology of Geostat is calculated as follows: if the player won 50 GEL 10 times with 10 GEL bet during the game and then lost this winning amount, the turnover according to the old methodology would be considered only 10 GEL, but the turnover with the new methodology will be 510 GEL . That is why there seems to be such a drastic change in the turnover of the gambling business compared to previous years.

To determine real income, we need to subtract the amount of turnover from the amount of profit issued. In such a case, it will become clear that the total revenue of the 138 operators in the gambling business is not 25 billion, but one billion two hundred and seven million GEL. And more than 415 million GEL paid to the budget. BPN and other media outlets, based on data requested by BPN, disseminated misinformation and manipulated people and numbers, increasing their companies' revenues by 25 times and misleading readers. People are convinced that the gambling business is in the top ten of the most profitable businesses, however this is unequivocally misinformation. According to the Forbes Georgia ranking, which was prepared in partnership with the international audit company Grant Thornton, in the ranking of the largest businesses in 2019, none of the gambling business operators can be in the top 40, not even in the top ten. Also noteworthy is the fact that the survey was conducted beyond the financial sector and does not cover the largest banking and microfinance businesses.

With all this in mind, it can be said that by sharing information without proper verification, the user contributes to the increasing spread of half-truths and false news. In turn, this stirs up an aggressive atmosphere, fears and resentments. As a rule, social media does not have the function of professional editing and verification, which is why propaganda and false information affect public opinion. That is why it is important for social media users to check the quality and reliability of the information before sharing the material, so as not to become the victim and disseminator of inadvertently incorrect facts, number manipulations and misinformation.