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Ukrainian parliament will vote on different bills which will see sports betting operators being taxed at rates varying between 0% and 25% of gross gaming revenue (GGR). Those bills, published last weekend, outline the potential taxation rates payable by online casino and sports betting operators.
The first bill to legalize gambling, Bill 2285-D, by Oleg Marusyak includes a UAH6.7m (£212,800) license 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 passed its first reading in the Rada with 260 out of 450 votes.
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.
The new bills, which come in support of 2285-D, are supposed to lay foundations of the new gambling law for Ukraine.
- 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 bills are being considered by the Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy. Ukraine’s SoP government seeks to establish a new industry tax code, which will sit alongside the nation’s 18% corporate tax rate.
At present, Ukraine’s SoP government maintains its timetable for regulating its gambling marketplace in 2020. Furthermore, the federal tax amendments published this week have yet to be reviewed by Rada for their first reading.
