Ukraine-licensed firms face licence fee payment battle
Following the enaction of a bill prohibiting gambling companies from business aid measures, operators now face a race against time to pay updated licensing fees
Ukraine-licensed operators are facing a double licence fee hit after the government revoked the right for deferred licence payments for the industry.
In March 2022, the Ukrainian government adopted several measures to support businesses during the war, including the right for gambling operators not to pay licensing and equipment fees for the period of martial law and three months after it ends.
However, the government reneged on this policy in late February after it elected to exclude gambling operators from the act. This means that all licensees have to pay off their “debts” and regular licence payments for 2023 within three months.
If any licensee fails to pay this fee in time, the regulator has grounds to revoke the licence.
Annual licence fees in Ukraine vary by sector. An online sports betting licence costs UAH120.6m (£2.71m).
An online casino licence sets operators back UAH26.13m while a licence for land-based casinos in Kyiv is UAH80.4m.
The land-based sector has already opposed this move by the government and has proposed alternative measures such as increasing the timeframe to pay the fee to six months and reducing the fee for a casino in the capital city to UAH2.035m.
The industry has also suggested that this fee be paid quarterly and not in advance for the whole year.
Last month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy enacted a bill preventing gambling firms from benefitting from the simplified 2% taxation system brought in following the Russian invasion.
Information provided by 4H Agency