"Money transferred from Georgia to foreign gambling sites will reach 2 billion late in 2022, - Giorgi Mamulaishvili, Head of Administration at Georgian Gambling Association told BMG.
A bit earlier, the financial director of "Europabet" Giorgi Nizharadze predicted an outflow of GEL 0.5 billion.
According to the head of Administration at the Georgian Gambling Association, the reason for the money outflow is the law adopted last winter. According to which, persons under 25 years of age and public officials are prohibited from playing from March 1, 2022, as well as the advertising of gambling games.
Giorgi Mamulaishvili calls the databases prepared by the Ministry of Finance irrelevant, as he explains, that citizens register with fake accounts on the website of gambling games and still play.
"Georgian authorities cannot oppose all this in any way due to the fact that neither Facebook, Instagram, or any other foreign sites are under Georgia's jurisdiction. There are no licensed operators in Georgia, so when they spend a lot of money, they expect a return. If they didn't have this return, there wouldn't be Marsbet today, which is a sponsor of one of the football teams.
2 billion, which will outflow from Georgia, is based on exactly this information, because we always do different types of analysis and always try to find the right information," Mamulaishvili said.
As for the list of gambling addicts of the Ministry of Finance, according to Giorgi Mamulaishvili, 0.05% of all citizens were registered on the list, which is a minimum figure.
Head of Administration at Georgian Gambling Association estimates, the current law does not work, which has put the gambling industry in an uncontrolled situation.
