Georgian Athletes in Support For Gambling Business Association
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Wednesday, December 22
In November, the Georgian government announced new regulations for online gambling businesses, and the draft bill of the regulations was submitted to the parliament on December 13.
Per the legislative document, online gambling businesses will see up to a 70% increase in taxes, gambling advertisements will be banned completely and the lower age limit for gamblers will increase to 25 years of age. The bill was supported in two hearings and parliament will make a final decision by the end of the year. The legislative package consists of several bills, one of which includes amendments to the Law on Advertising and Broadcasting.
The bill, among other factors, was criticized in this regard. According to the Media Coalition, the impact of the changes envisaged by the project on the revenues of broadcasters is not properly assessed.
It’s no surprise that this decision is not supported by Gambling companies. When the bill was first initiated, the Gambling Business Association released a statement, saying if this law was adopted, they would have to cancel their funding of sports.
On December 20th, the Association held a press conference regarding the termination of funding for Georgian sports sponsorship. The expected legislative regulations and the need to optimize costs arising from these regulations were discussed at the press conference.
According to the Association, the approval of the draft law will make it impossible for gambling companies to further invest in sports, which will harm the development of sports in Georgia.
Representatives of Georgian sports attended the conference in support of the Gambling Business Association. Athletes stated that increased taxes for the business will not allow it to further sponsor sport in Georgia and thus "will put many kinds of sports in a difficult situation and kill prospects for development."
Arm wrestler Levan Saginashvili believes that if these regulations come into force in the form in which they are now presented and because of this the gambling business will stop funding sports, it will be disastrous for the sport:
“I can say that I will either have to leave the country or I will have to give up sports. The state has a very small number of athletes who have a decent salary and income. I have nothing from the state. I am dependent only on the sponsor,” Saghinashvili said.
Weightlifter Lasha Talakhadze notes that if the athletes who are now funded by the gambling business stop receiving funds, it will be unfortunate.
A statement issued by the Georgian Gambling Business Association said that the expected regulations will put the heaviest pressure on companies operating in the gambling business sector.
“Despite our great concern, this will automatically lead to the need to optimize costs and make it impossible to further invest in the development of Georgian sports. Unfortunately, in the conditions of approval of the announced legislative restrictions, the gambling business sector will have to refuse to sponsor sports, which will harm the development of sports itself.
Also, the industry will have to reduce or abandon sports broadcasts. Accordingly, today we have invited representatives of sports to express our heartache around these events, to share with you our next steps. No matter how painful it is for us to make such a decision, if the government had left us another way, we would have acted differently.”
The Head of Georgian Gambling Association Giorgi Mamulaishvili in his turn added that adoption of this law will harm not only one specific area but also the population. People who want to play will enter the illegal market and no one should have the illusion that this will change for the better.
