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Performance Art. Facebook is showing information to help you better understand the purpose of a Page. In the latter month, one of his chopping partners was Russia’s aJarov (pictured), whose second place finish was worth $76,000. AJarov was camped out in Kiev, Ukraine when we talked to him and he dubbed the city the “capital of Russian and Ukrainian poker players.”.

Just about a year ago poker in the Ukraine was listed as a sport. Clubs are placed all over the country – in Lvov, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Cherkassy and, certainly, Kiev.

History of the Ukrainian industry of gambling is very much similar to the one in Russia. The law which forbids gambling came in force in 2009. It actually made a lot of casinos and slots machine clubs working undercover.

5 years later we can’t say that the situation has changed significantly. Big and little gambling houses are being closed for several times a year. It is a common practice.

Ministry of defense of the Ukraine holds a massive operation of finding and closing undercover casinos all over the country. It is supposed that all the corrupted workers of the law-enforcement agencies will be fired and the operation will be followed by even more massive reconstruction in insight building of organizations. The casino in the hotel Prime Palace will be an efficiency indicator.

Is playing poker considered gambling?

Poker is officially legal in the Ukraine. For almost four years Federation of sport poker held judicial confrontations for the right of putting this card game into the list of sport games. A year ago that has happened.

Despite a clear borderline between poker and other gambling games, some poker clubs experience difficulties due to that. Workers of the ministry of defense have made raids on famous poker clubs – for example 'Khreschatyk' club in the center of Kiev. However, no rules infringements were found so clubs were regaining their activities.

Where you can play poker in the Ukraine

There are several of dozens of good poker clubs in the country. Most of them are, of course, in Kiev, there are plenty of them in Lvov, Kharkov, Drepropetrovsk. 'Khreschatyk', 'Imperial', 'Alabama' are the most famous amongst them and are situated in the capital of the country.

“The leading club in Kiev is certainly “Khreschatyk”, which is known to many pros not only in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan or Georgia but also in Italy and Iran” – says Ukrainian reg.

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Poker net “Alabama” includes four clubs, three of them are in Kievand the fourth, opened in the midst of October 2014 – inOdessa. The situation in this town is very special. One of the locals had written this before the club opening:

“There is not a single poker club due to problems connected to opening it in glorious town of Odessa, where were four or five decent clubs back in the days”.

Even in small towns game is oftentimes wide open to be held and there are no problems. Visiting clubs is also not connected with some sort of problems: there is much lesser intoxicated people and securities work in a proper way, there is good stuff and working personal. This situation becomes better all over the country and after some raids to illegal gambling houses poker clubs can breathe with ease.

Likewise in Belarus, Ukrainian clubs put more volume to cash games. Tournaments are held often as well (in big rooms – daily), but they are mostly held to get more people to play cash games. You can get to mini-series of tournaments with guaranteed pool prizes of 10,000 grivna (~ $900) per event. There are more solid examples. Let’s take Russian Poker Tour series for example, it is being held in Kiev(and earlier in Odessa).

Buy-in to the tournaments are mainly medium or low – not bigger that couple of hundreds of grivna (less than $50), although big tournaments are easy to find. There are mainly rebuy tournaments or turbos, more seldom are freezouts.

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There is a lot of cash games of lower limits 1/2 grivna, 5/5, 5/10. These tables are available 24 hours a day. 25/50, 50/100, 100/200 are less frequent, but higher limits are easy to find as well.. The games of Hold’em, pot-limit Omaha and Chinese poker are played.

During different poker series stakes at cash tables can reach up to $50/100 in major clubs.

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Poker in Crimea

After Krimean reunion with Russiapoker on the peninsular has to get a new house. According to Russian laws, gambling is legal only in specially separated gambling areas. And such an area is crated in this region – for now on paper only.

Yalta

Building of the gambling area starts in the beginning of 2015, and now economical preparations are being made. Objective decision on this matter will be made based on proposed projects.

The cost of the building is evaluated to 100 million – 1 billion dollars. The most probable placement of gambling area is Bolshaya Yalta.

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Who plays Poker in the Ukraine?

The public in poker clubs is very heterogeneous – starting from students, young internet playes and going to old regulars. There are a lot of weak players.

“There was great income in quantity of people in 2009 when the law prohibiting gambling came in force. And they were mostly casino regulars who were deprived of their favorite gambling toys. All the grannies who were playing slot machines have become poker clubs regulars.

And not just grannies. With the development of online poker there is many good young players out there killing old casino guys and making up for their inexperience with great knowledge of poker math and probability theory,” – tells a regular from Kiev.

The level of the game depends on the stakes and, less, on the city. Kievhas become a new home for Russian regulars and players from other countries. But for now there is room for everybody.

At 1/2 there is less strong players and the bigger stakes the more experienced grinders there are. Tournaments are less predictable because of fast structure and big number of rebuys and addons.

In general Ukraine is a great variant for different kinds of players. Strong and weak players perfectly co-exist here. And in the future situation is going to be only better.

The most successful tournament player in the Ukraine:

1. Eugene Kachalov – $8,269,269
2. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – $6,824,459
3. Alexey Kovalchuk – $2,285,955
4. Alexander Dovzhenko – $2,106,214
5. Sergei Baranov – $1,151,196
6. Alexey Khoroshenin– $1,085,179
7. Anton Makievski – $1,083,594
8. Andrei Danilyuk – $953,262
9. Igor Dubynski – $779,857
10. Vadim Shlez – $776,449.

Eugene Kachalov

Kachalov and Timoshenko mover to the USA when they were kids, so their lives are closely connected with western culture. Being top-notch poker players, these guys still speak Ukranian and continue to defend colors of the native country.

Alexey Kovalchuk is from the new generation of Ukrainian sportsmen and he has two WSOP bracelets (2011 and 2012), two IPT titles and victory on Russian Poker Tour. He is much less notable last couple of years.

Alexander Dovzhenko in his turn is the guru of Russian and Ukrainian poker. In the summer of 2009 he took second place in EPT Kiev but generally he prefers smaller tournaments. Starting from 2001 Dovzhenko has cashed in tournaments for 119 times!

Gambling in Ukraine was illegal between 2009 and 2020.^[1]

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Parliament outlawed gambling in 2009^[2] after a May 2009 fire in a gambling hall in Dnipropetrovsk that killed nine people.^[3] The Ukrainian parliament passed the law 'On Prohibition of Gambling Business in Ukraine' (Gambling Ban Law) banning gambling business and any participation in gambling in Ukraine on May 15. The President of UkraineViktor Yushchenko signed the law on June 23 and on June 25 it came into force.^[2] The Law On Prohibition of Gambling Business in Ukraine also applied to internet casinos, it did not apply to lotteries.^[1][4]

Parliament legalised gambling again on 14 July 2020.^[1] Albeit with regulations and age restrictions (minimum age of 22).^[1]

2009 Ukrainian ban on gambling[edit]

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After a May 2009 fire in a gambling hall in Dnipropetrovsk that killed nine people several parts of society demanded a ban on gambling.^[5] The Ukrainian parliament passed the law 'On Prohibition of Gambling Business in Ukraine' (Gambling Ban Law) banning gambling business and any participation in gambling in Ukraine on May 15. The President of UkraineViktor Yushchenko signed the law on June 23 and on June 25 it came into force.^[2] The Law On Prohibition of Gambling Business in Ukraine also applied to internet casinos.^[4] It did not apply to lotteries.^[1]

On 6 January 2010 the Cabinet of Ministers excluded gambling from the list of economic activities, which can be licensed.^[6] This is read in the Cabinet of Ministers resolution No.14 of Jan. 6.

The law gave the definition of gambling. It stated that any game requiring the player to make a bet that enables them to receive a prize and the result of which depends on chance partially or completely, is considered gambling.^[7] Thus, all kinds of gambling, including slot machines, bookmaking, online gambling, interactive gambling became illegal. The law also provided a list of activities that are not considered gambling. These included lotteries, creative competitions and sporting events, pool, bowling, free draws carried for purposes of advertising, charity, promotion and education, etc.^[7]

According to the Gambling Ban Law, both organization of gambling business and gambling were illegal. The law provided that any organizer or gambling should be fined, while the gambling equipment and the revenue received was subject to transfer to the budget of the state.^[7]Despite the prohibition, by July 20, 2009 over 500 facts of illegal operation of gambling establishments had been exposed in Ukraine which resulted in the confiscation of 6,000 slot machines and around 216 criminal charges.^[8]

However, it did not lead to cessation of the gambling business, but it led to its criminalization.^{[original research?]} The police began to cover gambling business for reward.^{[citation needed]}

According to Prime Minister of UkraineYulia Tymoshenko Ukraine had an unusually high number of gambling halls (over 100,000), which 'take the last money from families, which don't have much, and which corrupt young Ukrainians.'^[9]

2010 Draft Law[edit]

According to the Gambling Ban Law, the new Draft Law 'On Gambling Organization and Maintenance of Gambling Activities in the Special Gambling Zones' should have been created within 3 months after the Ban Law took effect. However, because of the unstable political situation in Ukraine this draft wasn't introduced until 2010.

On November 3, 2010 the Draft Law was made public. This law provided for the establishment of the state-owned National Gambling Operator that would control the organization and regulation of gambling activities and also issue licenses for all private gambling operators.^[10]

On September 29, 2015 in Kiev, the first in the history of gambling Congress Ukraine, Ukrainian Gaming Congress was held.

Gaming zones[edit]

A significant provision of the Draft Law is the creation of so-called gaming zones. All gambling activities with the exception of state cash lotteries should move to these gaming zones. The list of gaming zones includes:

• hotels with at least 4 star rating and 100 rooms
• cultural and entertainment complexes, nonresidential premises, Ukraine-registered ships that can accommodate a casino with a gambling hall of at least 500 sq. meters

Additionally, the territory of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea and resort towns located within its boundaries are also proclaimed a special gambling zone.^[10]

Gambling establishments can't be opened within less than 500 m proximity of the educational and government institutions and healthcare facilities.The main reasons for choosing such locations were the intentions of the Ukrainian government to:

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1) limit the possibilities of the vulnerable part of the population to play games of chance

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2) get profit from the EURO 12 that will be held in Ukraine and will inevitably attract many solvent tourists.

To be admitted to the casino, gamblers will have to comply with the dress code and pass the strict face control.^[11][12]

Requirements[edit]

The Draft Law was developed with the intention of creating a properly regulated gambling market in Ukraine. For this reason the law provides stringent requirements for potential gambling business owners. A very serious financial background is one of them. The cost of a one-time fee for obtaining a gambling license will amount to $5 million. The same amount of money gambling business operator should have in the form of a registered capital. The license is issued for a term of 7 years, so the license fee can be paid in parts within the period of license activity. The size of the fee is determined by the Act on Gambling Businesses.^[13]

Poker[edit]

Poker tournaments in Ukraine flourished after the ban as a way of circumventing the country's gambling ban. Hence on December 31, 2009 the Justice Ministry of Ukraine rescinded its decision of July 1, 2009 which had included poker on the list of sports recognized in Ukraine.^[14] When parliament legalised gambling again on 14 July 2020 poker tournaments were also reallowed.^[1] Albeit with regulations and age restrictions.^[1]

TV and radio[edit]

Ukrainian PresidentViktor Yanukovych signed a law banning of paid interactive quizzes on TV and radio on 6 March 2012 (except for channels with limited access).^[15]

2020 Law[edit]

On 14 July 2020 president Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the Ukrainian law “On State Regulation of Organising and Conducting Gambling”. Both local and foreign investors will have access to the market, only legal entities registered in Ukraine may become gambling operators. Gambling operators shall not be controlled by a Russian resident nor have a Russian person as a shareholder or Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO). Neither should they have shareholders registered in countries currently blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in other words North Korea and Iran.In addition, a gambling operator must have a share capital of at least USD 1.1 million (UAH 30.7 million/GBP 906,000/EUR 1.0 million). They must open a deposit account or obtain a guarantee from a Ukrainian bank for USD 1.2 million, and they must have a dot.ua domain name.^[16]

The state budget already this year includes proceeds from the legalization of 'gambling' in 4.5 billion hryvnia (164 million USD). This is 118 hryvnia (4,3 USD) per each Ukrainian. Gambling establishments cannot be advertised in the media and programs for Ukrainian minors, in places where entertainment and sports events are held. The outdoor advertising is allowed from 21:00 to 7:00.^[17]

At the stage of passing through the Verkhovna Rada, Boris Baum, the developer of the document and the chief adviser of the President's Office on gambling issues, was appointed to the post of chairman of the regulator. Another person headed the commission. On October 22, the government, at the suggestion of Minister Oleg Nemchinov, approved Ivan Rudoy in this position. There is practically no information about his previous activities in the public space. Presenting this candidacy, the minister said that Rudy has experience and knowledge in the field of management, international relations and finance.The names of two of the six members of the commission soon became known. The first is Eugene Hetman, coordinator of international projects. The second is Elena Vodolazhko, a member of the Ukrainian Bar Association, an employee of Rinat Akhmetov's DTEK Service LLC. A total of 378 applications were submitted to the competition, and 42 people were invited for an interview. An additional selection of candidates is planned to close 4 vacancies.^[18]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdefgUkraine's parliament legalizes gambling, UNIAN (14 July 2020)
2. ^ ^abcBYT's Korolevska: Crackdown on gambling business by February, Kyiv Post (December 24, 2009)
3. ^Update: Fire in gambling hall kills nine people in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv Post (May 7, 2009)
4. ^ ^abTurchynov: Ban on gambling in Ukraine applies to Internet casinos as well, Kyiv Post (July 18, 2009)
5. ^Update: Fire in gambling hall kills nine people in Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv Post (May 7, 2009)
6. ^Cabinet: Gambling business unlikely to be licensed, Kyiv Post (January 12, 2010)
7. ^ ^abcLaw of Ukraine 'On Prohibition of Gambling Business in Ukraine'
8. ^Governmental checks expose over 500 facts of illegal operation of gambling establishments, Kyiv Post (July 20, 2009)
9. ^Tymoshenko: Ukraine's 'Las Vegas' can only be built with prior permission of local communities, Kyiv Post (May 18, 2009)
10. ^ ^ab'Draft Law on Gambling Games'(PDF). Archived from the original(PDF) on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
11. ^'Kolesnikov promised new rules for gambling in April'. Archived from the original on 2011-11-05. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
12. ^'State releases the gambling industry to freedom, but with conditions'. Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
13. ^Gambling Market in Ukraine
14. ^Justice Ministry removes poker from list of recognized sports, Kyiv Post (December 31, 2009)
15. ^Yanukovych signs law on ban on paid interactive quizzes on TV and radio, Kyiv Post (6 March 2012)
16. ^Ukraine: gambling (re-)legalised, Sayenko Kharenko (12 August 2020)
17. ^What you need to know about legalization of gambling in Ukraine, 112.UA News Agency (27 July 2020)
18. ^[shorturl.at/fjxAG History of gambling in Ukraine], Casino.ru (2020)