ArmInfo.Armenia has prohibited media and billboard advertising of online casinos and betting shops.
The RA Parliament has approved the relevant amendments to the Law on Advertising on Friday.
The legislation is aimed at combating gambling addiction and ensuring a universal policy (equal competition and requirements). Keynoter, RA Deputy Minister of Finance Armen Hayrapetyan reported that online gamblers leave the amount nearly equal to Armenia's on-budget expenditures or 25-30 percent of the country's GDP. In 2020 the online stakes showed a 6-fold increase as compared with 2018, with a 3- fold increase in the number of gamblers. In 2020, the turnover of gambling industries reached AMD 332.2bln (over $685,066,000).
Babken Tunyan, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs, reported stakes reached $6.6bln in Armenia last January-November.
"That is, this amount is twice as much as Armenia's budget revenues," he said. Armenia's authorities are thinking of more radical measures to combat gambling addition in the country. Despite the discontent on the part of media advertisers, who claim that 60 to 70 percent of their profits are due to advertising gambles and lotteries, Mr Hayrapetyan said that the real amount is 20 to 25 percent.