Ukraine's Online Gambling Legal Loophole

Published: Friday, September 18, 2009 Online-Casinos.com

It didn't take long before lawyers and business people in the Ukraine found a viable solution to the ban on gambling in that country. According to a recent report in the Kyiv Post newspaper online just a few short months after gambling was banned, some establishments have found a way around the rules by opening up as "Internet complexes" or "interactive clubs" and sending their operations offshore. Many new establishments have sprung up over the last two weeks and experts speculate that if these places do not experience difficulties with the police or in the courts, many more are likely to come on line.

At the "interactive clubs" as they have been dubbed by people working in them, gamblers pay for access to the Internet, then choose which games they want to play on their screen. When they run out of money on their account, they can simply put more in. Although gamblers are playing on the Internet, there is very little difference from the gambling halls that were on almost every street corner before the ban came into effect.

Honorary President at the Jurimex law firm and the author of a book on gambling in Ukraine, Danylo Getmantsev, said, "The ban is being circumvented legally" adding, "The server is set up in another jurisdiction offshore, where gambling is permitted, and here the owner of the establishment is simply an agent providing access."

Getmantsev went on to say, "In order to ban such practices, Internet gambling would have to be outlawed or a legal precedent set in the High Court"

A source in the Interior Ministry said that a large number of gaming establishments remain in operation illegally, adding that there is a lack of consistency in the way the police are applying the law.

Valeriy Pysarenko, part of the group that brought forth the bill on banning gambling, said he believes the Internet gaming halls are a temporary phenomenon thought up by businessmen who suddenly had revenues cut off.

Pysarenko said, "We will solve this problem by legislation as soon as this is possible" adding, a bill would also be proposed on special zones in Ukraine where gambling would be permitted.