UGC Once Again Appeals to Google to Stop Blocking Legal Gambling Ads

The Ukrainian Gambling Council (UGC) has appealed to Google to stop blocking all advertising of Ukrainian licensed gambling organisers, as it does not comply with the current legislation, leads to losses for both business and the state budget of Ukraine, and helps illegal operators to enrich themselves.

Combating illegal online gambling advertising is an important component of counteracting the development of the shadow gambling market. However, over the past year, an unbalanced policy in this regard has led to extremely negative consequences – search engines have begun to block all advertising related to the activities of primarily licensed Ukrainian gambling market organisers that have established and unchanged domain addresses in the Ukrainian Internet segment. However, illegal operators, who can easily change the names of their websites and move from one domain to another (in different jurisdictions), have hardly felt the effects of the bans.

In fact, Google considers Ukraine as a country where all types of gambling, except lotteries, are currently prohibited, and it blocks advertising mainly from legal companies. This situation leads to negative consequences and the expansion of the illegal services market. Licensed companies have obtained state licences and launched marketing campaigns, including sponsorship of sports competitions, but they cannot legally advertise their services online. As a result, companies lose customers and profits, and the state loses taxes.

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It is worth noting that lotteries are among the services allowed on Google in Ukraine. However, all lottery operators, without exception, operate in Ukraine on the basis of licences that expired back in 2014. In fact, lotteries imitate gambling – betting, online casinos, slot machines – without having the appropriate licences. They also do not pay any taxes and licence fees to the budget. However, lottery operators are not subject to any restrictions on gambling advertising.

In order to remedy the situation and streamline the system of prohibitions in order to prevent further losses of business and state funds, the Ukrainian Gambling Council (UGC), a non-governmental organisation that unites licensed gambling organisers, has once again appealed to the management of the regional office of Google in Ukraine, namely, Paul Terence Manicle, Director of Google LLC, and Tetiana Lukyniuk, General Director of Google Office in Ukraine, with a request to lift the existing restrictions and provide an opportunity to officially advertise gambling, in particular, on the territory of Ukraine using Google services:

• activities related to the organisation and conduct of gambling in gambling establishments;

• organising and conducting casino gambling on the Internet;

• organising and conducting betting activities in betting shops and on the Internet;

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• organising and conducting gambling in slot machine halls;

• organising and conducting poker games on the Internet.

Also, to remove the existing restrictions and allow official advertising of mobile applications on the territory of Ukraine using Google services and provide all opportunities for the official placement of mobile applications for organising and conducting online gambling on Google services.