“Lack of conscience”: Hetmantsev criticizes the work of PlayCity, which was given under Fedorov’s care
18 December 12:44
POSITION
Danylo Hetmantsev, MP and chairman of the Tax Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, criticized the work of the PlayCity agency. In particular, he noted that PlayCity, as well as other law enforcement agencies involved in the fight against gambling, have enough powers, but their work is disappointing, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
“I don’t know whether Novikov has justified Fedorov’s trust in his position, because I don’t understand what specific tasks Fedorov set for him. But I’m frankly disappointed in his work and the agency as a whole. The deadlines for the introduction of the State Online Monitoring System (SOMS – ed.) have been disrupted. The limits for the game are not actually set. This is actually an imitation of restrictions, not restrictions. The competition for lottery licenses is conducted in such a way as to exclude foreigners,” explained Hetmantsev.
Danylo Hetmantsev, MP
He also emphasized that despite his appeals to law enforcement, no measures have been taken to bring operators to justice for advertising on Russian and illegal websites.
“We have all the powers. The State Service should have been working for 3 years, but it hasn’t. The tender was held only in September. And it is unlikely to be launched in 2026. And so it is with everything,” the MP summarized.
Earlier, the head of the Tax Committee has already criticized the Ministry of Digital Transformation for the failure to launch the state online gambling monitoring. At that time, he emphasized that “the head of the body Novikov, who had a sad experience of working in KRAIL before, as well as the supervising ministry (the Ministry of Digital Transformation – ed.), should bear political responsibility for this failure.”
Gambling and PlayCity
In January of this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a law that provided for the liquidation of KRAIL and strengthening of state supervision over the gambling market. The document, among other things, introduced stricter restrictions on gambling advertising and prohibits gambling sponsorship, as well as introduces additional mechanisms to limit access to gambling facilities and participation in gambling for socially vulnerable groups during the martial law period.
In general, gambling was legalized in Ukraine back in 2020, but the online monitoring system has not been launched. It is supposed to show all the money paid by players, which would allow for an accurate calculation of casino revenues and thus the calculation of real taxes. According to various estimates, the absence of this system costs the budget tens of billions of hryvnias in lost taxes every year.
Recently, the state agency PlayCity (established to replace KRAIL) has been dealing with this issue in Ukraine. Its activities are coordinated through the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.
The Agency is currently headed by Hennadii Novikov. Previously, he worked at the Ministry of Digital Transformation under Mykhailo 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 e-commerce and business development of the Digital Economy Directorate. Later, Novikov moved to the KRAIL staff. There, he was responsible for developing an online gambling market monitoring system in Ukraine that has not yet been created.
In January-October 2025, budget revenues from gambling license fees exceeded UAH 1.3 billion, which is already ahead of the annual figure envisaged by government plans. In addition, the state received another UAH 8.6 billion in tax revenues from gambling business income.
