Members of the Communist faction of Kazakhstan Majilis (Lower Chamber of the Parliament) has applied to the President with a request to introduce limitations on activities of betting shops and online casinos, Tengrinews.kz reports. “It will be practical to introduce mechanism of voluntary self-limination of our citizens access to gambling venues, when a person voluntarily files an application asking to restrict him from entering gambling venues. All gambling venues will have to restrict such people from entering. This is a widely used international practice. A similar mechanism was recently introduced in Belarus,” Tursunbek Omurzakov said. He told that families of gamblers frequently apply to deputies asking to take measures against betting shops. “We suggest to introduce additional mechanisms for protection of people from gambling, especially from gambling through betting shops: introduce restriction on time of work, ban their activities at night, introduce restrictions on number of cashier offices and locations, ban their placement next to educational facilities and student dormitories, toughen license requirements, introduce social concepts aimed at countering gambling addiction,” the deputy said. Communists also asked to deal with activities of foreign online casinos. “Activities of online casinos are banned at the territory of Kazakhstan. Foreign online casinos are available for Kazakhstan citizens on the Internet. Money transfers are made electronically. There are no restrictions for gamblers to lose their property and money on the Internet. Besides, that the money is acquired by casinos that pays taxes to another country, i.e. we banned our own online casinos and failed to restrict the foreign ones,” the Majilisman said. He also considers it necessary to perform “a deep analysis of the level of penetration of gambling and gambling addiction in Kazakhstan, involving NGOs and the gambling business itself”. By Renat Tashkinbayev
Members of the Communist faction of Kazakhstan Majilis (Lower Chamber of the Parliament) has applied to the President with a request to introduce limitations on activities of betting shops and online casinos, Tengrinews.kz reports.
“It will be practical to introduce mechanism of voluntary self-limination of our citizens access to gambling venues, when a person voluntarily files an application asking to restrict him from entering gambling venues. All gambling venues will have to restrict such people from entering. This is a widely used international practice. A similar mechanism was recently introduced in Belarus,” Tursunbek Omurzakov said.
He told that families of gamblers frequently apply to deputies asking to take measures against betting shops.
“We suggest to introduce additional mechanisms for protection of people from gambling, especially from gambling through betting shops: introduce restriction on time of work, ban their activities at night, introduce restrictions on number of cashier offices and locations, ban their placement next to educational facilities and student dormitories, toughen license requirements, introduce social concepts aimed at countering gambling addiction,” the deputy said.
Communists also asked to deal with activities of foreign online casinos.
“Activities of online casinos are banned at the territory of Kazakhstan. Foreign online casinos are available for Kazakhstan citizens on the Internet. Money transfers are made electronically. There are no restrictions for gamblers to lose their property and money on the Internet. Besides, that the money is acquired by casinos that pays taxes to another country, i.e. we banned our own online casinos and failed to restrict the foreign ones,” the Majilisman said.
He also considers it necessary to perform “a deep analysis of the level of penetration of gambling and gambling addiction in Kazakhstan, involving NGOs and the gambling business itself”.
By Renat Tashkinbayev