Zelensky reacts to petition to restrict online casinos that gained 25,000 votes

Zelensky reacts to petition to restrict online casinos that gained 25,000 votes

Gambling business deliberately targets military personnel with its advertising using the symbols of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the petition says

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Zelensky reacts to petition to restrict online casinos that gained 25,000 votes

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed the heads of the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Special Communications Service, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the National Security and Defence Council to collect analytics on online casinos and their impact on a part of society.

The President announced this in his evening video address.

"Today, a petition on the topic of casinos – online gambling platforms – quickly collected the necessary votes. It is about how widespread it is and how it affects a part of society.

I have instructed the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Special Communications Service, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council to collect all the analytics on this issue and propose a solution next week," the President said.

The petition is authored by Pavlo Petrychenko, a soldier with the 59th Brigade.

He emphasises that soldiers who have been on the frontline for three years under stressful conditions are particularly psychologically vulnerable. Therefore, for many of them, gambling becomes the only way to cope with stress and, as a result, quickly causes dopamine addiction and weakens 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 to pawn drones and thermal imagers, thus harming not only themselves but also their fellow soldiers," Petrychenko writes.

The author of the petition adds that the gambling business deliberately targets military personnel by using the symbols of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in its online casinos and "whitewashing" its activities with small charitable donations to the army. Also, according to Petrychenko, many Russian online casinos target Ukrainians with their advertising to gain access to personal data of military personnel.

Therefore, the signatories ask President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to submit an urgent bill to the Verkhovna Rada that will provide for

- a ban on gambling and access to online casinos for military personnel during martial law;

- 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,

- prohibiting charitable foundations from cooperating 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.

On Friday 29 March, the petition quickly gained the required 25,000 votes.

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