The majority of Ukrainian citizens do not support legalization of gambling in the country, according to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on Dec. 1 through Dec. 12 as part of the KIIS Omnibus regular multi-targeted population survey.
To the question “Do you support the legalization of the gambling business?” 56 percent of respondents said they did not fully support it. Another 19 percent of respondents support the legalization of gambling, but on condition that special gambling zones are made for this or the places are localized. Only 18 percent of respondents fully support the legalization of gambling.
At the same time, the respondents were asked what games can be legalized in Ukraine. Almost half of the respondents (49.7 percent) believe that they can be lotteries, 22.1 percent – bookmakers’ odds, 18.7 percent – casinos, 9.5 percent – online casinos, 6.9 percent – gambling with cards. Some 37 percent said that none of the gambling can be legalized in Ukraine.
According to the results of the study, 52 percent of the inhabitants of Ukraine react negatively about the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky approves the legalization of gambling. 35 percent of respondents have a positive attitude to this initiative of the president. 62 percent of respondents know that several bills on the legalization of gambling are under consideration in the Verkhovna Rada.
The survey was conducted in 110 populated settlements (PSU) in all regions of Ukraine, except for Crimea and the uncontrolled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. During the field stage, 2,043 questionnaires were collected. The statistical error of the sample (with a probability of 0.95 and with a design effect of 1.5) does not exceed 3.3 percent for indicators close to 50 percent , 2.8 percent for indicators close to 25 percent, 2.0 percent for indicators close to 12 percent, and 1.4 percent for indicators close to 5 percent.
