Zelensky expects gambling business to bring UAH 5B to state budget in 2021

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that revenues from the gambling business to the state budget may reach UAH 5 billion next year.

"Thousands of illegal casinos have been closed across the country. The law on the legalization of gambling business has been approved," Zelensky said in his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

The President also added that almost 1,000 illegal filling stations had been closed across the country. As a result, official filling stations reduced the price of gasoline, he said.

In addition, Zelensky stressed that Ukraine's Ukrspyrt monopoly was liquidated, and the first alcohol company was privatized last week. "This process should be continued, which could increase revenues to the treasury by almost eight times soon," the President added.

Zelensky has also stressed that large-scale privatization is underway in Ukraine, and it is not about strategic facilities, but about hundreds of inefficient enterprises: "Yesterday they brought losses to the state, and today they bring billions."

The President pointed out that the Dnipro Hotel in Kyiv and some other facilities were transferred to privatization.

As reported by Ukrinform, the Verkhovna Rada on July 14 adopted the law "On the State Regulation of Activities Related to the Organization and Conduct of Gambling." The law determines the legal, economic, social and organizational conditions for the operation of gambling business in Ukraine.

iy