Armenia has amended its laws related to gambling and advertisement. As per the new regulations, only the local gambling operator will be allowed to advertise in the country.

An additional requirement is that gambling advertising should be targeted at citizens over 21 years of age. Advertising of gambling on radio and TV will be limited to 22:00 and 06:00 period of time. The penalty for violation of the law will be 1 million drams (about $ 2,067).

The Armenian government has also amended the Law on Lotteries, according to which the gambling business will be restricted to special zones of Tsakhkadzor, Sevan, Jermuk, and Meghri.

Tsaghkadzor is a city in the Koktaisk region, one of the most popular ski and climate resorts in the country which accepts tourists all year round. Sevan is a city popular with tourists due to the largest source of fresh water in Armenia – Lake Sevan. It is expected that the construction of the gambling zone will promote the development of this region. Jermuk is another resort town with at least nine hotels opened.

Meghri is a city rich in historical monuments in the south of Armenia. Due to its climate, as well as its developed infrastructure, it is potentially a successful project for the gambling and entertainment resort area.

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Nikol Pashinián, the prime minister of Armenia, has voiced his concerns about the “social problems in village communities” that the growing gambling activity in the country causes. He urged that “these devices should simply be removed.”

“How should we organise this in order for us to truly solve this problem accurately, this is a very important question,” the statement begins. “Overall when we look at our economic growth indicators it turns out that these gambling machines have become the leading branch of our economy.”

Then continues: “This is totally absurd, and our policy should be to change our logic: on one hand it encourages poverty, on the other hand, pardon me, [gambling addiction]”.

 “We must pursue a kind of policy where we won’t encourage neither the first one nor the second, this is a very serious problem and people, families, fates and others are being affected,” the PM said.

“There is no problem, we will discuss openly, transparently, publicly, we will understand whose interests are more taken into account, whose not, where objective issues exist, we will exclude them and solve this problem, because this really is a serious problem, and people are alarming about this problem in masses,” he concluded.

Source: Focus Gaming News

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Armenia has changed the section of gambling regulation that deals with the permissible age on gambling. Gamblers in the country’s casinos must be at least 21 years of age from now on.

In fact, this particular provision has been there since September 2014. But with the new amendment, casinos must have a provision to check the age of the visitors. Atom Janjugazyan, the Minister of Finance of Armenia, signed the new order that made mandatory the checking of passport or any other identity document of the casino visitor. The casinos will be liable for a penalty up to 300 thousand drams (about 500 EUR) for any violation of the rule.

The Armenian authorities systematically tighten legislation related to online and offline gambling. Currently, Armenian Ministry of Finance is considering the possibility of restricting the activities of foreign online casinos and a partial ban on advertising of casinos on the streets of cities and in the mass media. At the same time, the government does not plan to revise the profit tax on gambling, now it is 20 per cent.

Source: Latest News on European Gaming Media Network