Prime Minister Iraki Gharibashvili has announced that the Georgian Government will introduce a two-stage tightening of regulatory controls over online gaming in the country. First, taxes for owners of online casinos will be increased, advertising of online gambling will be banned and the minimum age limit for players will be raised to 25 years.
In the second stage, as stated by Mr. Gharibashvili, it is envisaged that online casinos will be banned completely. According to the Prime Minister, 1,500m Georgian Lari (US$482m) flows out of the country through online casinos every year. “Unfortunately, the money of our citizens is flowing abroad, and 99% of this is from the poor population who are not working,” he said.
