In Kazakhstan, the volume of services for organizing gambling and betting is growing, BaigeNews.kz reports with reference to Energyprom.kz. During the “pandemic” 2020, the indicator soared almost seven times, and taking into account the unobserved sector of the economy – 18 times. games and betting without the volume of services in the non-observed sector of the economy for the first half of this year amounted to 35.3 billion tenge, which is 4.5 times more in value terms compared to the same period last year. amounted to 89.7 billion tenge, which is 6.6 times more than in 2019, when the indicator reached only 13.6 billion tenge.
Almost the entire volume of services for gambling lovers falls on only two regions – Almaty (32.6 billion tenge) and Akmola (2.7 billion tenge) regions. The Kyzylorda region (3.2 million tenge) follows with a multiple lag.
Taking into account the non-observed sector of the economy, the volume of services for organizing gambling and betting in 2020 reached 278 billion tenge against only 15.3 billion tenge in 2019. Real growth in the sector was 17.5 times.
Kazakhstan does not oppose aggressive advertising of bookmakers, including, for example, sponsoring sports teams. At the same time, the pathological craving for gambling – gambling addiction – is recognized by the World Health Organization as a mental disorder. For comparison, alcohol and tobacco products are allowed to be advertised only at certain times with the fulfillment of a number of requirements or is completely prohibited, up to a ban on displaying goods on a shop window in stores.
