Ukraine Prosecutor General Yuiry Lutsenko urged the Cabinet of Ministers to resolve the issue of licensing legal lotteries “in the nearest future.” He said, “The Cabinet is devising the licensing procedure, but Ukraine’s National Lottery, as the single taxpayer in the lottery business, has legal status.”
Lutsenko added he was disappointed Ukraine’s lottery business frequently is associated with corruption involving law-enforcement officials. “We closed hundreds of lotteries last year. Unfortunately, they popped up again, like mushrooms after a storm,” Lutsenko said.
He noted the problem of illegal lotteries “can be solved legislatively, just as the bootleg amber mining problem, illegal logging, etc. It is possible to punish offenders, but it necessary to allow operators to work legally.”
He urged the Cabinet of Ministers to immediately “issue official licenses to one, two, three, however many lotteries they deem fit. That will be the legal foundation, and all other lotteries not operating according to it should be eliminated from the streets of our cities.”
