Budapest – 10 September 2018 –Belarus has been in the headlines of several industry headlines when it comes to new regulations in Europe and neighboring countries. The landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest, seems to be heading towards being a clearly regulated gambling market.

Just recently, the Belarusian Tax and Duties Ministry has announced that they will legalize online gambling institutions from April 2019. Vladimir Mukvich, Deputy Tax and Duties Minister of country, told the media about the recent Decree No. 305, which deals with “the legal regulations of gambling business.” However, he does not foresee a huge growth in online casinos in the country in the immediate future.

He said the basic norms of the decree come into force from 1 April 2019. Mukvich alsoadded: “We cannot say that there will be a large number of them in 2019–2020. We do not see any preconditions for such a trend.“

As a regulator, the Tax and Duties Ministry is interested in preventing online gambling to become a monopoly activity and expects applicants to be able to fulfil the requirements for organising online casinos.