Military ask to restrict online casinos: petition collects 25 thousand signatures
29 March 2024 17:51
Today, on 29 March, Pavel Petrichenko, a soldier of the 59th Brigade, registered a petition on the website of the President of Ukraine to restrict the operation of online casinos: within half a day, it had collected the number of signatures required for consideration.
In a few hours, the petition collected the 25,000 signatures required for the President to consider it, and the number of signatures continues to grow.
As of 17:00, 26,040 people had signed the petition No. 22/223008-ep.
The author of the petition calls for attention to the harm that gambling causes to the Ukrainian army and Ukrainian society.
“Military personnel have been away from their families for three years now, in stressful conditions and without the possibility of proper rest, so they are particularly psychologically vulnerable. For many of them, gambling becomes the only way to cope with stress, and therefore quickly causes dopamine addiction and weakens their self-control. It is not uncommon for gambling addicts to spend their entire allowance on gambling and take out microloans, thus putting themselves and their families in a “debt hole”, or pawn drones and thermal imagers, thus harming not only themselves but also their fellow soldiers,”
– the petition says.
According to him, the gambling business takes advantage of this vulnerability by deliberately targeting its advertising at military personnel, using the symbols of the Armed Forces in its online casinos and “whitewashing” its activities with small charitable donations to the Armed Forces.”
“In addition, many Russian online casinos target Ukrainian consumers to gain access to personal data of military personnel and other citizens, which poses a direct threat to the national security of our country. The huge debts of military personnel with gambling addiction can also become an element of pressure and manipulation by the special services of the aggressor country,”
– Petrychenko writes.
The author of the petition asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy to submit an urgent bill to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine that would provide for
- for the period of martial law, a ban on gambling and access to online casinos for military personnel;
- a ban on gambling advertising using the symbols of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and any symbols or objects related to war and the army, such as uniforms, helmets, machines, etc;
- a ban for charitable foundations to cooperate with gambling market participants;
- prohibition for military units to accept property in the form of charitable aid from gambling market participants or related individuals or legal entities;
- prohibition of any advertising or public references to the fact that gambling market participants provide charitable assistance to military personnel;
- prohibiting pawnshops from accepting drones, thermal imagers and other similar dual-use goods;
- obligation of Internet providers and mobile operators to block websites of illegal casinos.
The day before, Petrychenko complained that he had been trying to register a petition to restrict gambling for ten days, but it was constantly being rejected for moderation.
On 28 March, MP Oleksiy Honcharenko wrote on Telegram that nine out of 10 soldiers on the frontline have problems with casinos or betting (money betting).
The MP did not specify the source of such statistics.
In 2023, Ukrainians spent almost 400 million hryvnias daily in online casinos, or more than 12 billion per month, as reported by Ekonomichna Pravda with reference to the National Bank. The military is most often affected by this industry, which then suffers from “ludomania” (gambling addiction).
It is worth noting that the number of ludomaniacs – people who have limited access to gambling facilities and participation in gambling – is growing year by year. Currently, there are 3,871 people in the register of problem gamblers in Ukraine. Over the past year, the number of problem gamblers on the list increased 8 times. It is reported by Opendatabot with reference to the data of the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (CRGL).
The register has existed for three years. The overwhelming majority of problem gamblers (87%) were included in the list in 2023.
Currently, Ukrainians can find themselves in the Register of problem gambling addicts in three cases
- by applying for self-restriction,
- by the decision of the CRAIL on the basis of a request for restriction from relatives,
- by a court decision.
Thus, Ukraine has no clear statistics on the actual number of citizens with gambling addiction, and the figures from the relevant register do not reflect the full picture.
For gambling addicts in Ukraine, only temporary bans on visiting gambling venues are provided for – for a period of 6 months to 3 years. Upon expiration, these restrictions are automatically terminated.
