Belarus made great strides toward legalising online gambling earlier this month, with President Lukashenko signing into law a new bill which originally contained limited allowances for betting but has now been redrafted to include poker, slots, live table games, bingo and more. New operators must apply for a license within the country, although once licensed they may run their servers from elsewhere.
The licensing application process will begin on April 1st, 2019, the day the law goes into effect, and will remain open for two years. Tax and Duties Minister Vladimir Mukvich confirmed the news of the new bill’s passage, saying, “This will be done not with the aim of minimising the number of facilities, but to provide maximum protection to the players”. Operators will be closely monitored and required to keep funds in dedicated accounts, with all transactions to be transparent to government officials, and the minimum age for players is 21.
In the meantime, a fascinating development took place in Ukraine, where cash game poker has now been recognised as a sport and added to the Register of Recognised Sports. A 2013 ruling had earlier categorised poker tournaments as a sport while omitting cash games. There’s been some churn in Ukrainian poker in recent years; the 2013 ruling effectively overturned an earlier 2010 ruling which declassified poker as a sport and entered it into the group of games banned under the Prohibition of Gambling Business law.
The updated ruling now means that anti-gambling laws in the nation no longer apply to poker. It does, however, seem fair to conclude that new poker regulations will arise in time. For now, though, Ukrainian poker clubs, many of whom strenuously disputed the 2010 poker ban, can count this as a victory.
