The Verkhovna Rada on June 11 voted to override a presidential veto of the law banning the gambling business in Ukraine.
The Verkhovna Rada on June 11 voted to override a presidential veto of the law banning the gambling business in Ukraine.
A total of 390 members of parliament out of 429 registered in the session hall voted for the override, including 160 members of the Regions Party, 152 members of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, 32 members of Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense, 27 members of the Communist Party and 20 from Volodymyr Lytvyn bloc.
The law will take force as soon as it is published in Uriadovyi Kurier, the newspaper of the Ukrainian state executive bodies. The Verkhovna Rada banned gambling on May 15. President Victor Yushchenko vetoed the measure on June 4, criticizing the law for being populist and unbalanced.
Yushchenko said the shutdown will cost 200,000 jobs in the nation’s 11,000 gambling establishments. Estimates of tax revenue loss are Hr 700 million to Hr 1.5 billion. However, polls show that Ukrainians favor tighter restrictions on gambling.
