Minister of Culture and Sports Askhat Oralov held a staff meeting with the participation of vice ministers, chairmen of committees and the head of the staff of the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The main topic on the agenda was the fight against gambling addiction, El.kz reports.
One of the most important problems today is gambling addiction. Every day we monitor the information agenda, and among the most pressing issues in the information field is gambling addiction among our citizens.
Young, able-bodied people, our fellow citizens, lose everything because of gambling. Gambling addiction drives them into debt, destroys families, and often pushes them even to crime. We will begin to fight the uncontrolled advertising of the gambling business," he said.
The head of the ministry stressed that in the country, billboards advertising gambling flooded the streets, banners greet users of most sites, even those far from sports. And videos promising easy wins are shown in prime time.
We need to stop the aggressive advertising of bookmakers. And most importantly, there should be no exceptions for anyone. Yerzhan Malikovich, if necessary, we will strengthen the legislation so that bookmakers can place their advertising exclusively on sports events that they sponsor and on the buildings of their offices.
Large billboards and banners advertising the gambling business should be a thing of the past. As often happens, even at airports, when we come to different cities, even to the capital, we are greeted by banners advertising gambling. This does not fit into any framework. Therefore, we need to take the necessary measures as soon as possible. For bookmakers, the situation is improving.
We reduced it from 38 to 16. Now we are suing 4 bookmakers, seeking the cancellation of their licenses. The law is the same for everyone. Major players in the market will also be punished for violations. Since the beginning of the year, 5 licenses have already been revoked. I instruct you to work even more actively and aggressively in this direction. Once again, we have no authority in this matter," said the Minister of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan.