Ukraine's Gambling Industry Goes Online

[leonidas]

Ukraine's Prime Minister Tymoshenko has already built a reputation of anti-market politician. Few Ukrainians were surprised when the Gambling Bill introduced by the Tymoshenko government went into effect last month. In brief, this bill outlaws operations of gambling industry within metropolitan areas except in the specially designated zones for gambling. The gambling zones will be established in suburbs farthest from the downtown. It's not clear how the government will regulate a size of the gambling zones. Will all gambling business be able to fit in these still-to-be-built zones? Neither anybody knows whether owners of casinos will be compensated for business liquidation and relocation. By the way, who is going to build the gambling zones? There are too many unknown variables in this equation.
Why would you do it at all when Ukraine's economy is going through a deep recession? Don't you need to support business instead of shutting it down? What about other jobs which are related to the gambling industry? Btw, the gambling business generates more than 30% of local tax revenues in Ukraine. For instance, tax revenues from the gambling business made up 60% of a city's budget in Kharkiv, the second largest city of Ukraine. However, Mrs. Tymoshenko proudly uses the Gambling Bill in her presidential campaign. One of her campaign ads says: "Gambling Business is Outlawed: She (Mrs. Tymoshenko) Works!"
But Ukrainian entrepreneurs strike back! The owners of gambling business found a way to keep their operations at the old establishments. The entrepreneurs swapped casino's license for internet café's license. The former casinos became the internet cafés. Brand new desktops with internet access replaced slot machines and poker tables. Now the former card dealers introduce themselves as IT consultants. Btw, you can still buy buzz there. So how does it work? It's simple. You just play the same games online. Instead of buying chips, you deposit $100 to your internet-based account and then play black jack, throw a dice and so on. The owners of "internet cafes" say that after all they benefited from the Gambling Bill because they found ways to cut down their costs. One, internet café license is cheaper than the gambling license. Two, Ukraine's Tax Administration classifies internet café as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes so that the entrepreneurs just pay a flat income tax of 300 hryvnia ($40) regardless of their total revenues. Three, they also cut down on their labor cost because the internet café needs much fewer workers than a small-scale casino. Overall, the Gambling Bill is a really bad idea. It definitely hurts a gambling business that is one of the major sources of tax revenues in Ukraine. So far the effect of the government regulation was partially cancelled out by emergent entrepreneurial response. Let's hope that the internet café business is not the next on the Tymoshenko list.