22 Nov, 2021
Online gambling companies learned of the expected new regulations this morning through the media. At 11:00, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili announced that the age limit for gambling in the country should be increased to 25 years, advertising should be banned and taxes for gambling companies should be increased.
In a conversation with BMG, the head of administration of the Georgian Gambling Association, Giorgi Mamulaishvili, explains that the adoption of the changes announced today will make the gambling sector less attractive for international investments and will prevent the creation of new jobs in the sector.
"Many investors are interested in entering Georgia, and this is very important for the development of the country and the creation of new jobs, although these changes will reverse this situation," says Giorgi Mamulaishvili.
According to him, the age limit of 25 years, the introduction of which was announced today, does not exist in any country, and its introduction will lead to the transfer of tens of thousands of people to underground foreign sites.
According to Mamulaishvili, overall, the new regulations can set back the gambling sector of Georgia by 20 years.
- How well is the field of gambling in Georgia regulated?
I can tell you that today the gaming sphere of Georgia is quite transparent and it is well regulated. Everyone can find information on any indicator of gambling, and due to new challenges, there is a need to refine the regulations from time to time; For example, I can cite the year 2020, when the Law on Gambling and Profitable Games was completely changed, the regulations for identification and verification of players were tightened.
Most of the developed countries of the world and European countries have come to the conclusion that prohibition is not the solution, because then the activity will go underground. We can recall from our recent past the experience of the 2000s, when the gaming business was completely uncontrolled in the country. Since 2005, when the first system regulations were introduced, the regulations of our field have been improved and developed every year. An example of this is that Ukraine has legalized and Ukraine actively cooperates with Georgia to share our experience.
- What will the introduction of new regulations lead to?
We do not know exactly what changes we are talking about, although we communicated about the ban on playing under the age of 25 3 years ago and shared the experience of partner countries; There is no such high age limit anywhere in the world, and on the contrary, in many countries, including France and Japan, the age limit has been lowered from 21 to 18 years.
Limiting the age to 25 will result in this age group being involved in unsupervised gaming. Today, the activities of all players are regulated and controlled by the state; When the threshold is raised, people in this category will move to foreign sites, where Georgia has no control, which is harmful for business.
Today's speech of the Prime Minister was unexpected for us, now we are trying to get involved in the mentioned issues and consultations and understand the state's opinion regarding the adoption of the mentioned changes and what led to this type of decision.
We have not communicated with the state on this subject before; We have communicated with a company that is hired by the state to regulate and monitor our activities, but we have not discussed this issue with the Ministry of Finance.
If this issue and these changes are implemented, we will get what was in Georgia 20 years ago and what was in Ukraine 2 years ago. This is an uncontrolled situation and the activity has gone underground or on foreign systems," Giorgi Mamulaishvili explains.
