Armenia tightens requirements for local and foreign online casinos and bookmaker offices

YEREVAN, October 16. /ARKA/. Armenian National Assembly's committee on finance and budget issues has okayed a draft law on licensing foreign online casinos and bookmaker offices accepting bets from Armenia.

According to the draft law, they will have to be licensed under the same conditions as local companies.

Persons betting at online casinos will have to open special accounts, and no one except them, will be able to top them up. The authors of this legislative initiative say this will chnage the situation dramatically, because until now the circle of gambling 'enthusiasts' is still completely unclear.

"For example, it will be possible to find out whether the bets are made by poor people who receive, for example, family allowances," said the head of the committee and co-author of the legislative initiative Gevorg Papoyan, presenting the bill for the second and final reading.

The same targeted restriction will apply to law enforcers, as well as some other categories of citizens, he added.

According to the authorities, gambling companies are not against these changes. Nevertheless, they want a level playing field.

In 2022, the amount of gambling bets in Armenia increased almost one and a half times - from AMD 3.9 trillion to AMD 5.8 trillion ($12.5 billion).

(The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Armenia was worth 19.50 billion US dollars in 2022, according to official data from the World Bank. )

In the first half of 2023, the growth of betting turnover fell by 0.4%. Nevertheless, the government believes betting may well have gone to overseas sites. -0-