Ukraine: Casino licensing money to be used for social needs
The Ministry of Finance of Ukraine has proposed a scheme known in many countries of the world, according to which the lion's share of income from legalized gambling activities goes to the budget to pay for social programs. The budget will be partially formed by the money casinos and gaming halls pay for licensing and providing gambling services. All additional financial resources from their activities will be sent to various sectors related to social issues. Income is supposed to be directed to the following areas:
- Education. It is planned to allocate 2 billion hryvnias for the development of state educational institutions. A special fund will distribute funds to new and existing institutions.
- Medicine. It is planned to create new programs to combat cancer. In particular, a base will be created at the National Institute for Research and Treatment of Oncological Diseases. Planned expenses are 805 million hryvnia.
- Transport. They are going to spend about one billion hryvnia on the development of aviation infrastructure.
- Culture. The largest investments are expected to be directed to this area. The total amount of funds expected to be spent on holding and organizing various events throughout the country is almost 3.5 billion hryvnia.
The government is confident that such significant funds, directed towards the development of the social sector, will help to smooth out the negative attitude of the majority of the population towards the legalization of gambling entertainment.
Plans for 2022 already include the opening of a special social fund. It is also assumed that part of the funds received from deductions for issued licenses will be sent to local budgets of the regions where gambling establishments are located. According to estimates by the Ministry of Finance, income from the sale of licenses this year should amount to about 7.5 billion hryvnia. About 3.5 billion will go to the budgets of the regions, and the rest to social programs.
