The head of the Verkhovna Rada's tax committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, made counterclaims to the TVO of the Minister of Digital Transformation, Oleksandr Bornyakov. He also stated that despite the publicity about the court filing from Oleksandr Bornyakov, Hetmantsev has not yet received a lawsuit from him.
The head of the Verkhovna Rada's tax committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, made counterclaims to the TVO of the Minister of Digital Transformation, Oleksandr Bornyakov. He also stated that despite the publicity about the court filing from Oleksandr Bornyakov, Hetmantsev has not yet received a lawsuit from him.
The People's Deputy's statement was a response to a publication by lawyer Masi Nayem, whose law firm Miller is suing People's Deputy Danylo Hetmantsev.
"On Monday, Bornyakov informed the whole country through his lawyer that he had filed a lawsuit against me. But there is still no lawsuit. Everything is as usual - there is a presentation, there is no case. Bornyakov, where is the lawsuit? I demand that Bornyakov file a lawsuit and I want to prove in court the crimes committed by Fedorov's team and his Bornyakov," said Danylo Getmantsev in his video address.
The MP's statements were a response to a publication by the Ministry of Digital Affairs, in which the agency tried to refute Hetmantsev's "manipulations" regarding the reform of the gambling market. Hetmantsev presented his counterarguments on each of the points, publishing them in the public space.
In particular, the Ministry of Digital Affairs claimed that PlayCity had already imposed more than 80 million UAH in fines for illegal advertising of gambling. In turn, Getmantsev noted that the regulator has been turning a blind eye to pirated resources such as uakino.best and kinoukr.tv for months. According to him, he personally reported these sites to the authorities back in November 2025, but illegal advertising is still spreading there. The deputy emphasized that these platforms do not have the status of online media and age restrictions, which is a direct violation of the law.
Regarding the speed of response to illegal casinos, the ministry claimed to block violators within 24 hours. Hetmantsev denied this, drawing attention to the fact that the relevant body often does not notice the shadow market. According to the data provided, during January-April 2026, only at the requests of the SBU, BEB and other law enforcement agencies, about 200 websites had to be blocked, which PlayCity simply “did not see”.
Separate criticism was received by the order of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which allows players to independently set spending limits as a percentage of their income. The politician believes that such an approach will not work for people with gambling addiction, since the law does not provide mechanisms for verifying the specified amounts. This creates a risk that gamblers will artificially inflate their income for the sake of being able to place further bets, which is beneficial to the gambling business.
Hetmantsev also denied the ministry's statements that Mykhailo Fedorov had not been responsible for the gambling sector since 2022. He referred to government resolution No. 924 of August 2022, which directly established the issue of organizing gambling and lotteries under the competence of the Deputy Prime Minister.
In addition, the politician rejected accusations that there were no changes in lottery legislation. According to him, a law initiated by his committee was adopted at the end of 2024, which destroyed the monopoly of three national operators and allowed companies with foreign experience to enter the market.
The public confrontation between the Tax Committee and the Ministry of Digital Transformation regarding the regulation of the gambling market has been going on for several months and has recently reached the judicial level.
The other day, Bornyakov called Hetmantsev's previous accusations a "systemic campaign to discredit the Ministry of Digital Transformation," based on "manipulations, substitution of facts, untrue statements, and outright lies."
