According to Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Natalya Denikeeva, there are currently almost 15,000 people on the register of gaming addicts, but the Ministry of Digital Affairs admits that this is only a small part of those citizens who truly have a gaming addiction.
According to Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Natalya Denikeeva, there are currently almost 15,000 people on the register of gaming addicts, but the Ministry of Digital Affairs admits that this is only a small part of those citizens who truly have a gaming addiction.
«Ideally, such statistics should exist, they should be collected somewhere in the healthcare system, but as of now we do not see the full figure for the country. We do not see it because it simply does not exist,» she stated in an interview with Ukrainian Radio.
According to Denikeyeva, the registry of gambling addicts includes only those people who have self-restricted themselves and recognized the problem, so it cannot reflect the full statistics, which are much larger.
«What is available and can be operated on is data from the Register of People Who Have Restricted Their Access to Gambling. This register is maintained by the State Agency „PlayCity“. As of now, there are almost 15,000 people there. But here we must clearly understand that this is a „live number“, it is dynamic, it is constantly changing and it is definitely not everyone who has this problem. These are only those who realized that there is a problem, took a step and limited themselves,» the deputy minister noted.
Natalia Denikeeva reminded that on the website of the PlayCity agency you can submit an application for self-restriction, and the absolute majority of people in the register of game addicts are currently those who have restricted themselves.
«But there are additional options for how to do this. The second option is an appeal from first-degree relatives (parents, husband, wife, or children). And the third is court decisions, but there are very few of them,» she explained.
The Deputy Minister reminded that you can limit yourself for a period of 3 months to 3 years, and your loved one for six months, with the possibility of extending this restriction by submitting a second application.
Let us remind you that as of last year, almost 13,000 Ukrainians were registered as gamblers .
