INSIGHT GEORGIAN MARKET
In December 2021, a number of draft laws that introduced amendments to the Georgian gambling regulations were adopted by the parliament. Te amendments covered the following areas of the legislation: taxation, advertising, age limit, access restriction for particular social groups, transferring of funds, and administrative and criminal responsibility. In the following review we will focus on age limit and advertising restrictions.
Age limit
Restriction introduced by the new legislation is related to the age of potential gambling customers. According to Article 32(1) of the Gambling Law online and land-based casinos are prohibited for Georgian citizens under the age of 25. However, the restriction does not apply to foreigners. Tey can access casinos starting from the age of 18.
Besides the citizens under the age of 25, gambling will also be prohibited for public officials, socially unprotected groups who receive financial aid from the state, self- restricted persons, and those who are blacklisted by the court decision.
Advertising restrictions
Advertising is regulated by the Law on Broadcasting and the Law on Advertising. In accordance with Article 3(1) of the Law on Advertising advertising is defined as information about goods, services, and work natural and legal persons, ideas and initiatives disseminated by any means and form, intended for an indefinite circle of persons and serving the formation of interests and interests of individuals and legal entities, goods, ideas and initiatives maintenance, as well as promoting the sale of goods, ideas and initiatives.
Currently advertising of gambling is prohibited on the internet, on television, and outdoors with the following exceptions where advertising can be placed with certain restrictions related to the placement of advertising materials (e.g., size of the advertisement) inter alia:
l on licensed operators websites; l
during sports event in the inner perimeter of the sporting facility and/or via the inner banners and/or on the uniforms of the sport event participants according to the sponsorship contracts;
l at the venues where gambling is conducted; l
at the airports and/or at other border- customs checkpoints.
Te violation of the advertising regulations shall be subject to fine in the amount of €3,200 for both an advertiser and an operator. Repeated violation will be subject to €6,400 fine.
Te new regulations have already influenced the industry. According to the recent statistics published by the Georgian Revenue Service, the amount of taxes and fees paid by the operators
P78 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
Restriction introduced by the new legislation is related to the age of potential gambling customers. According to Article 32(1) of the Gambling Law online and land-based casinos are prohibited for Georgian citizens under the age of 25.
significantly decreased. Te Georgian Gambling Association (GGA) adds that the country does not attract many investors anymore. Currently there are six online operators, three of which are one of the biggest players in the industry – Entain, Betsson Group, and Paddy Power. Major operators launch the process of terminating advertising contracts with sports clubs and media. For example, Europebet decided not to prolong all contracts that terminated in the end of 2021.
Te Head of GGA Giorgi Mamulaishvili has recently commented on the current situation. In his opinion, the market has already lost about 18 per cent of the total revenue. One of the most crucial problems, according to Mr. Mamulaishvili, that people keep registering on gambling websites, make deposits, and participate in gambling activities but they do it on offshore gambling websites. Operators that are not located in Georgia are not controlled by the Georgian authorities and do not bring any revenues to the market. Tus, the funds just go anywhere else but the Georgian state budget.
Ivan Kurochkin 4H Agency
Sophia Balashvili 4H Agency
4H Agency is an international boutique consultancy firm covering the global gambling industry with a team of experts in law, regulations, banking and compliance.
https://4h.agency/
sayhi@4h.agency
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