Georgia to control gambling ads of online websites

The government of Georgia is going to introduce a legislation to restrict gambling advertising in the country. The bill would also curtail the funding from internationally licensed gambling sites.

The country’s  legislators were preparing a bill to effectively ban all gambling advertising other than the ones with sponsorships. However, recent reports suggest that total ban is not the cards, but a hefty fine will levied from the perpetuators.

The Georgian government is also planning to ban anyone under the age of 25 from entering the gambling room – virtual or real. Aha, said the government, that theory supports our plan to cut off the flow of money from Georgian punters to international gambling sites. Specifically, credit card firms and other payment processors would be required to restrict transactions with international gambling sites, so basically one should expect a significant spike in the online sale of golf balls, flowers and other definitely not-gambling items like the US witnessed in the pre-Black Friday era.

Georgia’s domestic gambling industry reportedly generated spending of GEL5.65b (US$2.3b) last year. However, the government appears to believe that this figure could be only the tip of the iceberg.

Last month, the Ministry of Finance published a document in which it admitted that the government currently “has no mechanism” for determining how much money is flowing through locally licensed gambling operations, which include land-based casinos, slots halls, betting shops and online betting sites.

Whatever revenue is generated by these channels is supposed to be subject to a 7 per cent tax rate.

Source: CalvinAyre