50 gambling facilities shut down in Kiev over December

Only for December 2017 about 50 illegal gambling facilities were discovered in the capital of Ukraine – Kiev. According to careful estimates, the cost of confiscated property was equal to more than 4 million hryvnas. Thus, the operation of 50 underground gambling facilities was shut down by the officers of the Department of Economic Defense, National Police and public prosecution.

In addition, the security officials have recently reported about more than 1300 gambling facilities to be got onto. By the way, the land-based facilities are quite easy to reveal, whereas the virtual ones, which accept players from Ukraine, are quite complicated to detect. It is also worth saying, that Ukrainians are not as addictive as Australians, who lose more per head gambling than anywhere else in the world.

The results of operative work in December 2017

The “clean-up” of underground gambling facilities was supposed to be a part of special counter-gambling campaign. As the result, more than 2000 units of gambling equipment were confiscated from 50 illegal facilities along with 285 thousand hryvnas for bets made by clients. Notably, that all the gambling halls without exception were hiding behind the State facades, but they were only open to “reliable” clients, who could get into the hall after the special check. Other people just couldn’t enter the casino, because it was closed for them.

Some underground facilities were divided into several halls, so that VIP-players could be in a separate zone and use certain privileges: book a video slot in advance, for example. As you can see, they are far from top-notch facilities. Moreover, the law enforcement officials recorded evidence of specific services rendered within the facilities and also the lack of any connection between operators and authorized agents of the State lotteries.

How were the underground facilities shut down previously?

Among these 50 underground facilities, there were 3 illegal casinos in Shevchenkovskiy, Goloseevskiy and Svyatoshinskiy districts. The officials confiscated computer equipment apart from revenues. Earlier before, in October, 14 gambling felicities in Kiev were shut down just in one day.

The law enforcement officials additionally carried out special procedural measures to establish facts of delivery of gambling services. All the debunked facilities operated “shielding” with lottery or internet-clubs’ facades. Some of the facilities didn’t have any identification marks at all.

In October 2017, the officials confiscated 784 units of computer hardware, which was estimated at 1,5 million hryvnas. Earlier before, two illegal facilities in the center of Kiev – in Degtyarevskaya nad Zhilyanskaya streets – were shut down as well.

During the search process it was revealed that the unlicensed casinos had 30 computers with installed gambling software, 7 poker tables, 2.5 thousand chips of different value, money and financial records.

And finally, the end of 2017 was marked by the establishment of Gambling Legalization Coordination Committee in Ukraine. What is to expect next – time will show.