MP Getmantsev appealed to the Prosecutor General regarding the license for UNL: accuses PlayCity of “dividing the market among its own”
19 February 17:05
People’s Deputy, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee Danylo Getmantsev announced possible violations during the issuance of a license by the state agency PlayCity to the state lottery operator UNL and appealed to the Prosecutor General with a demand to stop the “organized scheme of license distribution.” He announced this on his Telegram channel, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to the deputy, the license was granted “without a formal competition” and without allowing foreign participants. He claims that the documents submitted by UNL did not meet the conditions of the competition: in particular, the company did not have lottery outlets in the city of Kalynivka and the town of Pishchanka in the Vinnytsia region, where more than 5,000 residents live, which is a mandatory requirement.
Getmantsev also stated that UNL’s documents listed existing outlets and terminals in the cities of Mariupol, Melitopol, and Nova Kakhovka, which are currently under Russian occupation.
“No, this is not the submission of false information and/or no, this is not collaboration. None of this matters if Boryakov and Novikov are to distribute licenses among their own people. This organized criminal group must be stopped. I am appealing to the Prosecutor General,” the deputy wrote.
Criticism of PlayCity continues
Hetmantsev has repeatedly criticized the work of the PlayCity agency, which is coordinated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. In particular, he stated that the launch of the state online gambling monitoring system (DSOM) had been disrupted and that the restrictions on the gambling market were merely formal.
“I am frankly disappointed in the work of the agency. The competition for lottery licenses is conducted in such a way as to prevent foreigners from participating,” he said earlier, adding that despite his appeals, law enforcement agencies are not responding to violations by operators, in particular advertising on Russian and illegal websites.
Context
In early 2025, the CRAIL was liquidated and the PlayCity agency was created, which was given expanded powers to supervise the gambling market. It is headed by Gennady Novikov. He previously worked at the Ministry of Digital Transformation under the leadership of Mikhail Fedorov, where he was the chief specialist of the IT industry division of the digital development department and the head of the expert group for the development of e-commerce and business of the digital economy directorate. Novikov later moved to the CRAIL apparatus. There, he was responsible for developing an online monitoring system for the gambling market in Ukraine, which has not yet been created.
The DSOM system is supposed to ensure real-time control of all bets and payouts and allow for accurate accounting of operators’ revenues. According to experts, its absence costs the budget tens of billions of hryvnia in lost tax revenue each year.
