The Georgian parliament has passed a bill that seriously restricts gambling, including raising the age limit for gambling, banning advertising and increasing taxes for the industry.
the law was voted through by MPs of the Georgian Dream on Wednesday after accelerated hearings in parliament.
Activists have long advocated gambling restrictions in Georgia, highlighting addiction problems, debt and even suicides related to problem gambling. However, critics question the constitutionality of the new law and warn of unintended consequences.
Large TV companies have also claimed that the bill aims to curb substantial advertising revenue.
The flat rate law includes the imposition of 10% VAT on the gross gaming revenue in contrast to the current profit tax and a profit tax of 2%.
The new law will also prohibit those receiving social benefits and civil servants from gambling from January.
As of March, it is banned for anyone under 25 Gambling; the previous one law Restricted slot machine halls and online gambling for people over the age of 18 and casinos for people over the age of 21.
The changes also prohibit cards issued by Georgian banks from being used for overseas registered gambling services, an obvious measure to mitigate the expected move of operators abroad.
The law also provides for a blanket ban on gambling advertisements from March, including physical, online and broadcast advertisements. An exception applies to sponsor banners at sporting events and on athletes’ clothing.
Large Georgian gambling providers have, however threatened End sports sponsorship agreements, alarming of the Georgian Football Association.
Advertising ban violation will result in fines of 10,000 ($ 3,200 USD), which will double if repeated. Gaming operators caught allowing someone who is not authorized to use their services face the same fines.
Davit Songhulashvili, one of the drafters of the bill, called on Jan. [to gambling] as much as possible’. Official photo.Although casinos have faced intermittent closings and restrictions during the pandemic, revenue from the gaming sector in Georgia is high achieved 32 billion yen ($ 10 billion) in 2020, up 24% year over year.
Problems with gambling
Several small interest groups such as Mothers Against Gambling and the Georgian Gambling Research and Ludomania Prevention Center have advertised citing addiction problems, debt and related suicide in recent years. Calls for restrictions were also supported by the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Proponents have claimed that widespread gambling advertising has led Georgians to borrow excessively in hopes of making money quickly and easily, and got them into deeper financial troubles.
A 2018 to learn Alternative Georgia, an advocacy group working on addiction, found that 87% of Georgians who gambled at least once a month in the past year said they sold or borrowed money because of their gambling.
A 2019 to learn The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs also found that 13% of 15 to 16 year olds in Georgia had gambled and 12% of them had problem gambling in the past year .
On Monday, Tamar Japaridze, the head of Mothers Against Gambling, welcomed the initiative, but also pushed Legislators should use 10% of the tax revenue received from the gambling industry to fund the treatment of gambling addiction.
Tamar Japaridze during the December 20th press conference. Screengrab of Kvira footage.
Recently changed legislation allows family members to appeal to the courts to blacklist relatives who they believe have gambling addiction.
[Read more on OC Media: ‘I thought I was invincible’ — the Georgian teenagers gambling online]
Underground gambling, populism, unconstitutionality – points of criticism
The new law found no support from most of the opposition groups, including Lelo, Strategy Aghmashenebeli and Girchi – New Political Center.
While Lelo admitted that the industry needed more regulation, MPs described the law as rash and “populist”.
In conversation with Mtavari‘s Post Action Program, Lelos Saba Buadze described Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili’s approach was “contradictory”, citing a recent statement in which he pledged to “support” casinos to boost the country’s economy and “tourism potential”.
Gharibashvili recently set up a special economic zone in Gonio – a settlement near the capital Adjaria, Batumi – that would also house casinos.
The chairman of the Georgian Gambling Federation, Giorgi Mamulaishvili, has argued that Georgia risked enticing people to switch to “illegal websites”, which would turn its “regulated” gambling market into an “unregulated” one.
Several opponents of the restrictions, including EuropaBet and watchdog group the Human rights center, have also argued that raising the age limit to 25 would be unconstitutional given the freedoms and duties that come of age.
“Against the media”
Critics also pointed to the impact the gambling advertising ban had on media company wallets.
Days before the Parcel Act is passed Coalition for the Advocacy of the Media, which brings together 16 interest groups and TV broadcasters formula, Mtavari, Pirveli, and Kavkasia, criticized the initiative as discussed in one (n expedited way.
The coalition stressed that accelerated hearings on the package’s draft prevented stakeholders from properly discussing its budgetary and media implications, including the package’s financial independence.
An advertising ban, originally scheduled to come into effect in January, was postponed to March as a compromise proposal by the ruling party, which opposed other adjustments requested by the media and opposition groups.
Georgian Dream turned down several proposals by Lelo, including restricting television advertising only during the day, focusing on gambling education, and introducing some temporary tax breaks for media groups.
