Why is it important for KRAIL to issue licenses for land business right now?
This is important to us for two reasons. It was about the land-based market that the president once spoke about. And it is important for us that this market is launched. The main percentage of new jobs that will be created in Ukraine in this sector is a land-based business. In Odesa, the largest casino in Ukraine will open in the Gagarin Hotel, there are many thousands of square meters. There, 605 people have been waiting for the opening for four months at work. 605 young people, some have returned from Cyprus, some from Georgia will work and earn money. In general, we planned that the sector will create at least 15 thousand new jobs by the end of the year.
Will land-based casinos be able to start without certification?
Land businesses cannot operate without certification. Unfortunately, he cannot. We do not refuse because of this. But it is very important to resolve this issue.
Are there currently standards by which equipment can be certified?
Today we have DSTU, which certifies gambling equipment, we had it. It's not quite up to date. It's old, these things ended long ago. They are. And there is an online system for how to certify. And the random number generator is certified too. All of this is there separately. But it is not modern. We believe that many things need to be changed and made easier. Gaming equipment, tables, roulettes, slot machines, and online systems are already being certified. That is, our 1C is a certified accounting program, someone certifies it. The point of certification of software that provides data transfer is that when you enter something there, you cannot manipulate anything. The same certification takes place in the operators' online systems, everything is the same. There you don't need to invent a bicycle, it's not that difficult. It's just that the responsibility for these changes if they occur, is borne not only by the owners of this software but also by the same company that certified. Therefore, it is very important for us that NAAU says that these companies are accredited, and if suddenly they do something wrong, they are responsible according to the law. And they are responsible and the NAAU watches over them. We do not need to monitor companies that are certified and accredited by the NAAU for how they do their work. We were given a certificate - we accept it. This is not just some kind of office from the street, it is an enterprise accredited by the National Agency of Ukraine. Therefore, today everything is there, everything works. We just need to refine the system. We will work on it quietly.
When will a new technical regulation for certification be developed?
We already have a working group that is developing a new technical regulation. We want to understand how to integrate world practice, how to integrate world laboratories. They will come here, open their offices, their laboratories. And they will be able to teach others based on their experience, and we will be able to accept these European certificates ourselves. But already with the Ukrainian seal, which will be accredited. But it takes time, it's a year. This is a big whole process. But we are already doing this.
Why can't KRAIL accept the list of equipment for certification now?
The catch is that the Ministry of Finance believes that it is necessary to separately certify the random number generator. And the discussion is what we have. According to the law, we need to certify gambling equipment, slot machines, tables, roulette tables, and the operator's online system and shuffle machines. This is spelled out in the law. The description of the slot machine and the online system includes, among other things, a random number generator. It is included there. It does not need to be certified separately. That is, it is against the law for us to certify separately. And the question is even different. The random number generator itself, separately from the machine and the online system, toys cannot exist. This creates a certain bottleneck for operators who say: "We don't understand, toys are already certified, why should we still get one more paper?" We are writing to the Ministry of Finance about this - guys, this is illegal, do you have any other comments? Not a random number generator. Where is the Ministry of Finance and where is the random number generator. I would also write to the Ministry of Digital Science, where are you specialists from? And so we ran into it and 45 days can no longer agree. We cannot go to the committee, we cannot do anything. And here we run into. Online operators have certificates, but in fact, we cannot accept them, because we have not yet gone through our formal procedure. This is such a strange collision, unfortunately.
Why does KRAIL most often refuse licenses to land business operators?
The main mistakes are in the documents. They are different, completely stupid. They write an application for March 2 and certify a document on February 22. Someone writes a list of premises, for example, and they forgot to enter a toilet of 15 meters. They write to assure at 300 meters, but when you add them, it turns out 285. Such trifles, but some moments are necessary to coincide. We need to understand what kind of room the casino or gambling hall will be located in so that it does not turn out that some kind of deception exists. Why do we require the casino area and the gambling hall area to be clearly outlined in the technical passport of the premises? We do not want them to say - well, here is a hotel along the entire street, 20 thousand meters. And they will take all these meters and circle them in the casino. It doesn't work that way. It is very important for us to clearly understand where this zone is. We want to publish so that people understand that here is the entrance to the casino, if the entrance is somewhere else, this is already an illegal casino. This is important because one of the main functions of the Commission is precisely control and distribution of the gambling business. Many documents are not submitted. Recently we had a story. They show the beneficiary, he bought the company, the shares were transferred to him. We say, okay, but where is this person's contract that he bought these shares? Where is the act that he handed them over, where did he get the money from? "Was it necessary?" Well, probably it was necessary. How not necessary? We must understand where he got this company from.
For information on the operation of online casinos and illegal advertising of gambling, watch the third part of the interview with Boris Baum at gamingpost.net
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