Ukrainian lawmakers introduce bills to set gambling taxes

Ukrainian legislators have submitted three bills to establish tax rates for gambling in the country if it becomes legal.

If any of the three bills are passed, it would come into effect alongside Oleg Marusyak’s bill to allow gambling, which passed its first reading in the Rada with 260 out of a possible 450 votes.

A bill jointly submitted by Marusyak and Marian Zablotskyi, Bill 2713, sets the tax rate for all gambling and lotteries at 25%.

An alternative – 2713-1, submitted by Dmytro Natalukha – proposes a 7.5% GGR tax rate from bookmaking, 12.5% from online gambling and 22% from lotteries.

The bill 2713-2, put forward by Oleksandr Dubinsky, would establish a 25% GGR tax rate for all forms of gambling: online, land-based and lotteries.

Currently, all three bills are being considered by the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy.

Marusyak's bill to legalise gambling includes a UAH6.7m (£212,800/€249,500/$277,300) licence fee as well as a fee of UAH41.7m for casinos in hotels with 200-250 rooms and a fee of UAH62.6m for casinos in hotels with 250 or more rooms. These licence fees will track the country’s minimum wage to adjust for inflation.

The bill would determine bookmaking licences through a system where each licensee would have the rights to open 5 bookmaking shops. 32 bookmaking licences would be available in Kyiv, 16 between Ukraine’s other large cities of Odes and Kharkov and a further 32 in the rest of the country.

The number of gambling machines is limited to 40,000 and players must be 21 to gamble, an increase from 18, which it had been in an earlier version of the bill which did not pass when read in December.