The VRU Investigative Commission: "Financing Terrorism"-illegal online Cazino withdraws from Ukraine tens of billion UAH.

The real volume of the gambling market in Ukraine reaches up to UAH 180 billion. per year, and only about 1% of this amount falls into the state budget. Such estimates were provided by the Security Service of Ukraine during a meeting of the Provisional Investigation Commission of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on investigation of violations in the field of gambling.

Every year the budget does not receive about 12 billion UAH of taxes from the illegal gambling market, said the head of economic counterintelligence of the SBU Artem Shilo. Thus, legal bookmakers and online casino paid about 730 million taxes and another UAH 1. 2 billion for 2022. It is a drop in the sea, given the number of illegally working casino in online and offline and bookmakers and the volume of the market according to law enforcement.

According to the Gambling Regulation Commission and Lottery, there are only three bookmakers in Ukraine today, and only 12 operators are licensed among the online and track (four more licenses). In parallel, there are already 1789 sites providing gambling services, 55 sites with illegal lotteries, as well as 606 illegal casinos and gambling valves, illegally. All of them do not pay taxes using different evasion schemes, or completely withdraw money from Ukraine through foreign payment systems.

"We checked the work on the TSC of the most casual Russian 1xbet. I was able to make a payment calmly through some European payment system," screwed "to the site", - said a member of TSC, MP of Ukraine Alexei Zhmenetsky in his Facebook. According to the Ukrainian Gambling Council profile Association, the legal operators of the gambling business make up only 30% of the entire market, the other 70% are illegal sites that do not have licenses.

"And almost all of these sites continue to work! Law enforcement agencies claim that only the NSDC can block sites. We cannot block the transfer from banks to international payment systems that work for violators, because this type means a violation of the rights of Ukrainians abroad, which these systems can use, "the People's Deputy Zhmerenetsky. Among the illegally operators of gambling operators in Ukraine, a large part is either Russian or have roots in the aggressor country.

The largest of them is the Russian bookmaker 1xbet, which even received two licenses in the spring of 2022, but due to significant public outrage by this and a number of journalistic investigations that 1xbet can collect personal data of Ukrainians to transfer them to Russian special services. But today, 1xbet continues to work illegally in Ukraine through a number of websites and "mirrors", as well as other satellite offices such as Pointloto, Fansport and others.