Ukraine’s annual lottery losses estimated at 188 million Euro

A recent report suggests that Ukrainian lottery operator “MSL” could be losing 5–6 billion UAH in taxes annually since 2016, mainly because of Ukrainian officials’ inaction.

President of “MSL,” Georgiy Lozhenko, revealed this interview. He said that the destruction and artificial redistribution of the lottery market began in 2014 and continued ever since. Each successive finance minister has contributed to this. Officials also have created conditions for the appearance of illegal lotteries by their actions.

“If people organise some games, even in the “shadow,” that means they were given the opportunity to work illegally. Someone in the government wanted to redistribute the market,”  Lozhenko said.

According to the expert, one of the tools to create the “shadow” lottery market was a change in tax legislation. According to Ukrainian laws, every player should pay a tax regardless of the size of the winnings.

“It is necessary to measure how much money was received from the players, how much the operator received after paying out the winnings, how much he paid in taxes, how much he spent on social and humanitarian projects, but nobody wants to use such a system,” Lozhenko concluded.